Broken Beyond Repair
by Frog-Lizard
Summary: Frog: Some damage just can't be undone. A series of OC backstories, and a prequel to an upcoming fanfic. Different genres for different chapters, but no romance is planned. Chapter 12: The actual beginning of the plot finally arrives!
1. Sparkler

**NOTE: You do **_**not**_** have to read these chapters in order. If there's a specific character you want to learn more about, then just skip ahead to their chapter ;) These are one-shots, so most of them can stand alone without you having to read the previous chapters.**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Tranformers, or the song "Beauty from Pain" by Superchick.

Frog: Argh! Lizard, why must you drag me down with you!!! I have a enough stories, but _no _you just _had _to get me interested in TF fanfiction *grumbles irritably to herself*

Anyways, now that that's out of my system, welcome to my one-shot series! The purpose of which is to introduce some of mine and my sister's OCs that will be appearing in a fanfic I'll post...later. These one-shots will help you get to know the characters a little better and to learn their backstories. Most will be kind of angsty/dramatic (despite my general dislike for the genres). I will say that it's NOT absolutely necessary to read these in order to read my upcoming fanfic, but it will help, especially considering the fact that I have WAY too many OCs as it is and I don't want people to get confused.

This first chapter is about my first TF OC, Sparkler ;) She's going to be one of the more important characters in the fanfic when I start posting it, so I thought it best to start with her.

_The lights go out all around me  
One last candle to keep out the night  
And then the darkness surrounds me  
I know I'm alive but I feel like I've died  
And all that's left is to accept that it's over  
My dreams ran like sand through the fists that I made  
I try to keep warm, but I just grow colder  
I feel like I'm slipping away  
-~~~~-_

"Are you _almost _done?" a white painted youngling whined, swinging her legs back and forth over the edge of the table. The dusty-orange medic giving her a check-up chuckled slightly. Apparently her leg needed some maintenance, hence why it was taking longer than usual.

"This would go a lot faster if you'd just hold still," she chided.

"But I want to go play!" the youngling pouted.

"And you'll be able to. Just a minute, I'm almost done."

"Sparkler!" she continued to fidget about, unable to hold still no matter how hard she tried.

"Flicker!" Sparkler complained right back, using her best impersonation of the youngling's voice. Flicker glared at her, crossing her little arms over her chest.

"Just one more…there! Ok, all done!" Sparkler chimed, standing up straight.

"Can I go play now?" Flicker pleaded with wide, begging optics. The adult femme smiled fondly down at her, and nodded. Flicker beamed as Sparkler helped her down from the examination table, and sent her on her way.

"But don't wander too far! And you know when you need to be back, right?" Sparkler called after her.

"Yep! Don't worry! I'll be good!" Flicker yelled back, her voice fading as she ran down the hall, "Sorry, sir. Excuse me."

Sparkler shook her head, smiling, and started putting her tools away as the heavy footfalls of Flicker's near collision came down the hall and stopped in front of her door.

"You're really letting her go outside?" her boss, and teacher asked, giving her a skeptical look.

Sparkler sighed heavily, "You've seen that face. How couldn't I? Besides, there have yet to be any Decepticon sightings in this area. We don't even live on Cybertron for Primus' sake!"

"That doesn't mean we won't be attacked," the senior medic reminded her. She paused briefly in her movements before busing herself with cleaning up again.

"You could be of more help to them, you know," her teacher added after a moment.

Sparkler rolled her optics, "_This _conversation again? I already told you, I'm not going to agree to any stationing where I can't take my little sister with me!"

"But you could do so much more good in a military outfit than in this blasted supply convoy!" he sighed heavily, "You've got talent and a good spark in you. You would be much better off helping wounded Autobot soldiers than running maintenance scans on this lot! Besides, Flicker would be taken care of, not to mention much safer if you would let the Autobots place her with all the other sparklings and younglings whose parents and guardians are off at war."

She just gave him one of her looks that stated she clearly didn't care, "I wouldn't mind being put somewhere else, but this was one of the only spots where I was allowed to take Flicker with me. I'm not going to abandon her, no matter what reasons you give me. She's the only family I've got left…And if you're so concerned, why don't _you _go?"

He shrugged, "I would if I were younger, Sparkler. But I'm starting to loose my edge. Besides, I prefer a more peaceful setting, and I'm just not cut out for war I'm afraid. You on the other hand…"

"I said _no_."

He nodded slowly, though his optics conveyed his disappointment, "If that is what you wish then fine. But at the very least think about what I've said. I have friends among the Autobot forces, all of which would be more than happy to have you work with them. If you ever change your mind…"

"I don't think I will any time soon…" Sparkler muttered. He stared at her a moment longer, but said nothing more. It was a shame to see someone with her talent and dedication be wasted on these finance-crazed vendors, but he had to respect her decision. And so he walked away without another word as she finished cleaning up and went her own way as well.

A few days later…

"Flicker!" Sparkler yelled desperately into what little remained of the storage warehouse. She picked her way about the toppled shipping containers, a good half of the ones remaining having either been ransacked or obliterated. Elsewhere her she could hear others in pain and some that needed help, but she couldn't answer them. Not yet.

Anxiously she followed where her spark led her, her bond with Flicker being her guide. Finally she spotted a fleck of white. Bending down she found a small arm, and she bit back a sob.

"Flicker!!!" she screamed her voice shrill as she looked around frantically once more. This time she heard a small, muffled sound coming from a pile of debris. She focused all her sensors completely onto the area, barely able to hear the soft sound of her sister whimpering in pain.

But there was no time for relief. Sparkler rushed over, and moved the wreckage as slowly and carefully as her nerves would allow. Under a collapsed cargo container's wall she found her. Barely online and leaking energon all over the place; she lay prone and helpless among the rubble. Gently Sparkler reached down to retrieve her and cradle her in her arms.

"S-S-Spark-les?" Flicker asked weakly, her optics dim, but not out completely.

"Hush," her older sister crooned, liquid oozing from her optics as she ran a medical scan, "It's ok. I'm here now. Nothing else is going to happen, ok?"

"I…can't…feel my….legs…" the youngling whimpered.

Sparkler nodded, trying her hardest not to cry in front of her. According to her scans it wasn't too late. But if she didn't do something fast…

She set the little one down against a steady metal blank, and prepared to repair her. But…she paused. Her entire form was trembling. She couldn't possibly do this! Not without the risk of hurting her more, and maybe putting her offline. She couldn't even think straight of what she should do first, everything was just a blank at seeing Flicker in such a state.

She should have been there for her….

"Just hang on for a little longer…" Sparkler instructed, pulling Flicker close to her chassis again, and standing up. She looked around frantically, and then bolted for the last spot she had seen her teacher.

Luckily he was still there, and there were more medics and rescue teams pouring in at having received their distress signal during the Decepticon attack. She rushed to his side, shouting as he turned from the bot he had just finished repairing.

"Sparkler?" he gave her a startled look, having wondered where the young femme had ran off to in such a hurry. He got his answer when he spotted the limp form in her arms.

"Please! You have to help her! I-I can't…" she began, but he was already taking the youngling from her shaking hands.

"Calm down, Sparkler," he whispered harshly, needing silence so he could work. Sparkler quickly shut her mouth as tightly as she could, though on the inside she was about to scream her voice box out.

She stood behind him, stalk still, barely even functioning. Everyone moving around her was just a blur. Even her teacher's hands as he worked desperately to save her precious little sister were just colors and shapes she could not discern. All she could see at all was Flicker's still form, their optics locked onto one another's. Sparkler tried to send reassurance through their bond, but she was so afraid herself, she could barely even do that.

A tiny smile came to the youngling's face, and Sparkler suddenly felt a weak pulse of love and comfort come from the little one's spark. _'It's ok, Sparkles' _the emotions whispered to her spark. _'I'm here …'_

'_Please don't go…' _her spark whispered back.

'_Aren't you supposed to be the brave one?'_

Sparkler's optics were flowing with fluid by now, _'Maybe. I don't know. I guess...'_

Flicker's smile grew slightly in silent humor though her older sister failed to see what was so amusing, _'So it's my turn to be the brave one?'_

A small smile came to Sparkler's face, _'Yes. It's your turn to be the big, brave Autobot. Just like you always wanted.'_

'_Just like you?'_

'_Yes. Just like me…'_

The weak smile that came to the youngling's face caused the rest of the world to disappear completely, _'I love you Sparkles…'_

'_I-I love you too, Flicker…' _

_A small shine came to her optics, 'You're the best…big sister…..ever…..'_

She felt her sister's end of the bond fading. Her spark screeched in protest but there was nothing she could do as the bond died away alongside the Flicker's spark.

Around her reality was once again falling into place. Her teacher had stopped moving, his hands falling hopelessly to his sides. A few passersby paused to look, some chased away by the merchants that the sisters had come to know so well since joining them. Sparkler was aware of all this and yet at the same time numb to it.

Her feet began to move of their own accord, turning toward the rescue vessel that had come to their aid. She boarded it, her movements more animatronic than Autobot. One of the crew directed her to a room she could stay in. She thanked them with an emotionless voice. Once inside she barely looked around at the simplified setting before choosing a corner, curling up in ball and breaking into a fit of sobs.

She didn't know how long she had been there, just that her tear ducts had long since run out of liquid for her to cry. So she just sat there, hunched into her corner, staring grimly into the dimly lit room. Someone knocked, but she didn't answer. So after a moment they came in anyways.

"Sparkler?" her teacher called into the still room. He spotted her, and his already depressed visage increased. He slowly approached her and knelt down in front of the femme. She didn't look at him, instead staring at the patternless floor.

"I'm…sorry I wasn't able to save her," he began quietly. She finally raised her optics, pulling her knees closer to her chassis.

"Don't be…I-I'm the one who wasn't able to do anything…" she murmured, her voice box sore from overuse.

"She wasyour sister. I imagine you were quite shaken from seeing her in such a state. I know that I was," he tried to reassure her.

"But I could have saved her!" she half yelled, but her voice began to crack when she tried, "If I had been able to get myself to repair her! If I had been able to think clearly instead of panicking she might still be here!!"

"You were emotionally involved with you patient. That's why you were scared, and unable to access your medical programming. It's unfortunate, yes, but our emotional processors tend to override all else. And you are an especially emotional," he stopped himself there, remembering she was not a student to be taught at the moment. She was a friend, torn and on the verge of breaking, and he was hardly someone that could comfort her.

"Here…I thought you might want to keep this," he began again after a moment, extending a hand to her. She looked down at his palm to see a small Autobot brand. The tiniest smile came to her face.

"If I recall," her mentor smiled a bit himself as she took it and inspected it closely in her own hand, "You made that for her, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Sparkler shook her head in bemusement, "She wanted to be an Autobot so badly….."

"Just like her big sister."

"Hm," she nodded slowly, a sad smile on her features. They paused a moment, both lost in thought.

"You look tired. It's about time you recharged," he sighed, standing up straight. She took the hand he extended to her to help her up as well. Without another word, she went over to one of the berth's lining the walls, and curled up on top of it, facing the wall. Her teacher watched her a moment before taking a berth on the opposite side of the room. A few of the other refugees came in as well for the remaining berths.

Sparkler held mostly still, regarding the Autobot brand in her hands as those around her went into recharge. Her processors were suddenly churning again, particularly with what her mentor had said to her.

'_If our emotional processors hinder my abilities as a medic…'_ she mused to herself, tucking the brand into a small holding by her spark chamber_, 'Then it stands to reason…if I can somehow block that…out….I'll be a better medic…'_

She shut off her optics and began to fall into recharge herself, a new resolve building in her spark.

'_And then….this will never have to happen again…'_

_-~~~~-  
After all this has passed  
I still will remain  
After I've cried my last  
There'll be beauty from pain  
Though it won't be today  
Someday I'll hope again  
And there'll be beauty from pain  
You will bring beauty from my pain_

Frog: You know I actually almost cried while writing the middle part....I never do that XP Anyways, that's Sparkler's tale of woe for ya. It has some important little tidbits though for the full-length fic that she'll be featured in. I'm not really sure if the Transformers in the movie universe have colors when they aren't on Earth, but for the purpose of this story, they do. It's just easier for me to write.

As a side note, check the bottom of our profile for a link to my playlist for this series! It'll have all the songs I've used, and will be using for future chapters just in case you're interested ;)

So yeah, um that's all I have to say? Wow! Normally you can't get me to shut up! Review if you feel so inclined. Thanks for reading! Bye!


	2. Staticshroud

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Transformers or the song "Hero" by Superchick or the name Braimond.

Frog: Originally this chapter was just going to be about Staticshroud, the leader of the Glitchlings, but as I was working on it another OC, Sniperkite worked his way in here as well as another OC that's only made mention of. So I started over on it so that it would work better. But the OCs like Sniperkite and some of the others that will appear in later chapters aren't going to play very big roles in the full fanfic, so they, as of yet, aren't going to have their own title chapters unless someone requests it.

This chapter actually turned out to be much more lighthearted then I thought it would be. Which I suppose could be a good thing.

Oh and "Hero" is an all-around good song for this entire series, so you may see it pop up again ;)

Thanks to my dear lil' sister Lizard for helping me with the appropriate terminology for Cybertronian measurements of time.

* * *

_No one talks to him about how he lives  
He thinks that the choices he makes are just his  
Doesn't know he's a leader with the way he behaves  
And others will follow the choices he's made  
-~~~~~-_

Sniperkite stared anxiously over his shoulder at the now closed front doors to his new home for....awhile he'd reason. A tiny, old little outpost far, far away from Cybertron. As he looked down the long corridor he almost wished he could turn back to the ship that brought him all the way out here and leave. But this was the only place they would station him so this was where'd he stay unless he wanted to be given an even _more _useless job, however that was possible.

"It's not like there would be Decepticons way out here anyways," he muttered bitterly to himself, "We're at the edge of the galaxy for Primus' sake!"

He winced as he realized he had already begun talking to himself. Maybe that was what happened to the last bot that worked here, the one that was presumably off line because he had failed to report the last two times he was contacted about an assistant. Maybe he had just gone mad and didn't know how to operate anything any more?

Sniperkite shuddered at the thought and hoped that it was the off-lining. The last thing he wanted was to find some maniac in these halls.

He straightened his posture some and started toward the control room to get a feel for what he was dealing with. Hopefully it was all in proper working condition still. As he walked his vision began to blur, much to his chagrin. He should really be used to it by now, admittedly, but it still troubled him every time it happened.

Soon he had to resort to using his hands to guide him awkwardly down the corridor to the control room. The doors at the end opened before him, revealing a large room lit only by various screens and panels, though really all he could see was a large splotch of blue-ish light. He sighed and just shut them off entirely; instead using his audio receptors to judge how the mechanisms were working, and was impressed to find that they all more or less "_appeared" _to be functioning properly.

"You ok, son?" a voice to his left asked. Sniperkite yelped, jumping away from the voice, and into the door frame. He desperately pleaded to his optics to go to at least a semi-normal focus level, but still all he could see was a big, dark blob in front of him.

"Easy now. Don't want you to hurt yourself," the fuzzy shape chuckled slightly. Sniperkite felt something take his arm and help pull him back up straight, "You don't look so good. How about some energon?"

"I...uh....." Sniperkite shook himself from his startled daze, "I-I wasn't aware there was anyone here."

His vision at last began to clear and he was able to make out a shrugging motion on the figure in front of him, "I suppose I'm not surprised. Haven't bothered to contact the Autobots lately."

Sniperkite paused as his vision now came to be normal and he could discern the mech's appearance. He was tall, well taller than Sniperkite at least, with a fairly average amount of armor. His paint job was a dark green with flecks of silver and gold here and there. He was smiling kindly at him so he tried his best to smile sheepishly back, if only for a moment.

"It was presumed you were offline," he admitted, recalling that this mech could potentially be insane.

"Oh reallly now?" the mech looked very amused at this thought, and held back a laugh, "Then it would seem my suspicions were correct."

"Ah...suspicions?" Sniperkite repeated as the taller mech walked farther into the room and sat in one of the control chairs.

"In a moment," he mused, absently pressing some buttons, "What's your name, son?"

"Sniperkite, sir."

"Well then, Sniperkite," he said, turning back to him, "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to our humble home on Sybeeria!"

Sniperkite's optics twitched, "_Our_."

Either he was right in thinking this guy was crazed, or...

"Braimond is out collecting necessities. Should be back soon. I'm sure you two will get along famously. Very agreeable, that one is so long as you don't _try _to get in a fight with 'em," he explained, once again seeming a bit preoccupied with the control panels.

"Ah....." Sniperkite made a small face, "And you are...."

"Staticshroud," he answered, rising from his seat, "Now if you don't mind me asking, how did you ever manage to land _this _job?"

"I um...couldn't really be placed anywhere else," he gestured vaguely to his face, feeling embarrassment rising in his spark, "My optics don't work properly all the time..."

"How so?" Staticshroud questioned, rubbing his chin as he inspected the younger mech closely.

"They focus in and out of their own accord. Switch functions and various parameters. I really have no control of them...."

"Hm..." Staticshroud nodded, turning off his optics as he thought, "Just as I thought..."

"Sir?"

The older mech gave him a stern look, "You have a glitch."

"I..." Sniperkite hung his head, "Y-yes sir..."

"There's no reason to be ashamed, boy. Just because the Autobots don't understand you doesn't mean _everyone's _like that," Statichshroud explained gently, "I know full well what you must have gone through to rightfully bare that brand."

"You...You do?" Sniperkite gave him a startled look, and then his optics narrowed slightly, "So then...are you a glitch?"

"Indeed I am," Staticshroud gave a small mock-bow, "And if those Autobots aren't going to accept that, then I'm done with the lot of 'em."

It was then that Sniperkite noticed the scrape marks on the taller mechs chassis, the slightest remnants of an Autobot symbol along the edges. He stared with wide optics up at him, "Are you a Decept---"

"Hardly," Statichsroud interrupted to prevent that thought from going too far, "But I'm no Autobot either. Now don't you start thinking I'm against them though, 'cause I'm not. I just don't have any reason to support them. They don't have a place for an old glitched-up soldier like me, so why should I?"

He sighed, sitting down once more, "I worked hard to earn a place among the Autobot ranks. Harder than any of my peers simply because everyone else tried to stop me at every turn. And when I finally did make it, I can't think of a single spark that thought I deserved it. That's why they sent me out here, so they could finally give me a place proper for someone like me. Same thing happened to you, didn't it."

Sniperkite averted his optics at the pointed statement, knowing it was true, "So...you finally just gave up then?"

"Nah, _I _didn't give up," Staticshroud vented softly, "_They're _the ones who gave up on me. I'm no Autobot. I never was one. At least according to all of them I wasn't."

"Is your glitch really that bad?" the younger mech asked softly.

A small smirk crossed his features, "I suppose that would all depend on your point of view. But to be fair, it could prove...hazardous in certain situations. I...blank out, occasionally, for lack of a better term. My senses all become dulled to nothing but static and white. Sometimes it's only for an instant, others it can be ornsbefore I come to again. High stress tends to make it worse, something which I am thankfully lacking all the way out here," he shook his helm with a small chuckle, "All the more reason to not a join a war no one wants me in I suppose."

Sniperkite nodded slowly in understanding, and the Staticshroud made a small coughing sound, "Ah well, it's all the past now. Here, let me show you how to operate this scrap pile. I'm sure you've learned, but that's still a lot of little buttons to remember."

* * *

Far into the future:

He never would have imagined this. He never even could have dreamed it. All those vorns ago when he first came to the decision that he was not an Autobot that so many others like him would follow the same path. And of all things, they looked to _him _for leadership.

Staticshroud shook his head, smiling to himself as he watched the scene below him. Several bots, most of them fairly young at least compared to him, were mingling about the production floor far below. His little Glitchlings he liked to call them, even the one or two that were older than he was. He daresay he loved each and every one of them. They were his family, and he would do anything for them.

"Supervising the newest additions?" a familiar voice asked from behind him.

"I do have a good vantage point here. And you. Out of your office? At this hour?" he joked, turning his head to see Sniperkite peering down to the production floor as well.

The younger mech, though maybe not so young anymore, shrugged, "I like to show my face every now and again. Lest anyone forgets what I look like."

"I highly doubt that's an issue," he paused thoughtfully, "You know....you were my first Glitchling."

Sniperkite rolled his optics, "Glitchling," he snorted as though testing the word out for the first time, when in reality it wasn't, "You do realize that makes us all sound like your cute little pets, don't you?"

"Well perhaps you _are _my adorable little pets. Yes, you're all my precious little Glitchlings that must be fed and protected and all around cared for," the older mech smirked slightly, though Sniperkite could easily sense the real weight of his words.

There were very few bots that Staticshroud would allow to see how tired this all made him. He not only had to handle matters of their mining business, but also the survival of everyone that worked or took refuge therein by any means necessary. Needless to say, it often left him feeling exhausted and stressed. His blank outs were more common and longer than they had been in vorns past, but Staticshroud always knew his Glitchlings were in good, capable hands any time he was out, and that reduced his potential stress dramatically.

"You do good work, sir. I don't know a single spark here that feels otherwise."

"Well here's to hoping that faith never becomes misplaced..." Another long pause followed as they watched a small argument break out below, much to the amusement of its spectators.

"To be completely honest, sir, negativity doesn't suit you," Sniperkite added lightly as the issue was resolved by one of their more violent members sending the opposing parties to separate corners of the room.

Staticshroud snorted back a laugh, "No. I suppose it doesn't," he finally broke out into a full grin, "I should really pay a visit to the mines themselves. Haven't seen Braimond and the others in awhile. A little insanity will do me good. You too perhaps?"

The younger mech gave him a startled look, "Me? Go down _there_? I think not! If I want to got into a dark, confined claustrophobic space, then you can find me back in my office, watching the chaos from behind a monitor screen. But _don't _ask me to be there for it personally!"

"Suit yourself," Staticshroud's tone was full of amusement as he turned for the exit, "You and your devices. Honestly, son, you need to get out more. And when was the last time your workspace was cleaned?"

The very miffed expression his friend gave him at that comment caused him to laugh outright. Sniperkite tried and failed to speak several times before finally growling some unpretty words to himself, and crossing his arms tightly.

"Don't let Icefog catch you like this. She might mistake you for a youngling," the dark green mech couldn't help but give one last word of advice before he disappeared down the hall.

Being the leader of the Glitchlings wasn't always easy. Primus, it wasn't even of average difficulty most of the time. But he thrived on it, and wouldn't trade his lot in life for anything.

* * *

Frog: Sniperkite was actually a bigger part of this chapter than I thought he would be XP Not that that's bad, just he won't be in the actual story much as it stands so far. Of course, that might change later, you never know.

And it was much more lighthearted than the last chapter which is hopefully good? In its own way. At the very least it let you see what Staticshroud's personality is like.

As another note, I'm also adding some actual TF characters that weren't in the movies to my Glitchlings' ranks. So far I have Sunstreaker set up and he'll have a chapter in this series eventually (need to find a song for it first). And if you have any suggestions for other canon characters that might fit in well with this group, let me know in a review or PM. If you have an idea for a glitch they have, that'll help too.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you got this far! Review if you want or have questions, it will make me very happy :D And constructive criticism is always appreciated. Thanks again! Bye!


	3. Organum

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Transformers or the song "Cut" by Plumb.

Genre: Angst/Family/Drama

Frog: First and foremost, I did not make up Organum's name. Look the word up in the dictionary, it exists ;)

This chapter gave me some trouble. Organum's personality is set, but at the same time it's not because her personality has a lot to do with her job. Something which I had to dance around with a little to try and keep her from becoming too Mary-Sue-ish and/or departing from the world of the fandom too much. Eventually I came to this, and I like how it turned out. She's kind of like a "prima dona meets Dr. Frankenstein" type character whatever that is XD

As a final note, I'm still debating on whether or not Organum's sparkmate should be someone specific or not. My biggest problem is deciding on "whom" of the canon characters it would be. So any input on this would be appreciated as I'd like to use it as a plot device later in the actual fic.

* * *

_I may seem crazy  
Or painfully shy  
And these scars wouldn't be so hidden  
If you would just look me in the eye  
I feel alone here and cold here  
Though I don't wanna die  
But the only anesthetic that makes me feel anything kills inside  
-~~~~~-_

She felt sick....Sick enough to purge herself at any given moment. Could she actually be doing this?

Organum shook her head tiredly, staring at the delicate wiring in her hands. If anyone found out what she was doing; what she was trying to create, they would might just offline her on the spot. Either that or check her into a mad house. Going offline sounded far more pleasant, though. Honestly, what would people think if one of their most brilliant and elegant politicians went insane.

The tall, brassy-colored femme couldn't help but smile darkly to herself at that thought. Here she was, about to complete a device that would allow her to commit to what was perhaps the most blasphemous idea ever processed, and she was worrying about her public image. Perhaps she was crazy after all....

Reluctantly she resumed her work, fingers dividing into two and then into two again, giving her the soft touch and dexterity needed to place the fragile wiring. She tried hard not to think of anything but what she was doing, but that proved to be nigh impossible as she was reminded of just what all she was giving up...

First of all, she would loose her job, simply because she could never return to it. It wouldn't be wise for numerous reasons. Like the fact that a civil war breaking out over all of Cybertron was fast becoming a possibility. She had never really been a part of those debates, preferring to stay neutral, but she was often present while they took place. It wasn't often that her fellow politicians frightened her, but she often left the council those orns with trembling hands and a throbbing processor. Violence in general just...unnerved her in ways she couldn't explain.

Which led up to her current predicament once more. Her sparkmate. Cause of all the grief that now inhabited her life. How had she managed to be wooed by a Decepticon in the first place?! Of course there had been no prospect of war when she first mated with him, but still, the more she thought about it, the more she questioned her judgment.

She paused her work again, shutting off her optics. There had been a time....not so long ago actually, that they had still loved each other. That there was nothing she wouldn't have done for him, and, she believed, he would do for her. But recent events had driven a wedge between them. Tactics she had once only reserved for her most stubborn political opponents, she had found herself using often in her arguments with him. Tactics that cut deep and quick, and in response, well when he could no longer yell, physical violence often left her sobbing quietly to herself, broken and afraid.

Still, despite it all, there was a flickering desire in their bond. The longing to return to what once was. They both felt it, that much she knew for certain, something which was becoming a rarity for her anymore. No matter what either of them did, in the end their bond kept them from hating each other completely, and reminded them that they hadn't always been such bitter rivals.

Perhaps there had been hope for them yet, given time.....

But that had all crumpled to dust when he crossed the _one_line Organum would never compromise for...

If she glanced to the side, she knew she would see you youngling daughter, Ivory, recharging peacefully on a nearby table. The aptly named off-white femme was her pride and joy. The most precious thing to her in the entire universe. When her sparkmate had shown he didn't feel quite the same about their daughter....it had changed her opinion of him permanently.

She tensed at that memory, her resolve hardening once more as she worked feverishly on her device. She had known something was off when she couldn't find Ivory, a mere two orns ago. She presumed that the youngling was with her father, but the tensely shut bond between herself and her sparkmate, as well as her maternal programming alerted her that something was wrong. Being Ivory's creator, it hadn't taken too long to locate them, but still much longer than she would have liked.

If only she could have gotten there sooner. To stop him before he even started. Maybe to make him think about what he was doing. Or conceivably it wouldn't have made a differance either way.

Had had been downloading battle programming into Ivory's processors. Programming that she shouldn't be receiving for another two frames, if ever. Organum had been quick to interrupt the data flow, and snatch her daughter out of his reach, running before he could take the youngling back.

He should have known she was too underdeveloped for such programs. Her young, impressionable processors would have been overwhelmed. Ivory would have lost not only her younglinghood, but also her emotional processors would likely have been warped by the violent capabilities this large program contained. She would have become a miniature soldier, a threat no one would assume. With proper training, Primus only knew what a youngling could be able to accomplish.

But she would not have been a youngling anymore. She would have become a mindless monster, overpowered and controlled by Decepticon battle programs.

She would not have been her precious daughter Ivory...

Organum did not know just how much had been downloaded into her daughter before she had come across the scene. But already she had noticed slight differences in Ivory's personality. The already quiet youngling had very little to no interest in the few play activities she once enjoyed. She was almost constantly taking in her surroundings, alert for dangers that didn't exist, and the way she spoke was more monotone and mature than previous.

Organum could only hope that there weren't worse errors hiding under the surface.

With a final click, she realized her device was finished, ending that train of thought completely for the time being. She stared at it a moment, inspecting every part of it closely. Oh wait. She forgot to attach the self-destruct program. Another few clicks and buzzes, and that was added as well, to ensure that no data would remain or be accessible should she fail in this attempt.

Her hands trembled slightly as she positioned herself in front of the mechanism. It would be impossible to perform a field test without having a test subject. And she wasn't going to risk that. Therefore she would be it's first and only target.

It was designed to rid her of the one thing that plagued her most. A powerful, concentrated charge, right on her spark, that would disrupt the bond she shared with her sparkmate, and ideally disconnect it completely. At least that was the idea. There was an equal chance that it might just offline her. But it was a chance she was willing to take.

She had even gone to the trouble of leaving a suicide note in the event that it did kill her off.

There was also the possibility that it could damage her creator's bond with Ivory. But that one was still strong, and she prayed that it could withstand the little snip of surging energy. And even if their bond was destroyed as well, she would always love her daughter regardless.

Much like how a small part of her would always love her sparkmate, bonded or not....

With one last glance to ensure Ivory was still resting, she switched the device on, shutting down her optics as she attempted to relax. She would never forget and she would never forgive him. But she would always hold close what had once been, even though it could never be again.

The charge struck her, short and quick, and instantly her entire form wretched away from the device in agony as the self-destruct activated and it began to fall apart. Both inventor and creation falling to the ground as all went black.

* * *

Into the future:

Busy hands once again handled small wires, winding and unwinding, plugging and unplugging almost as though the owner could not make up their mind in regards to what the hands were supposed to be doing. But really it was more along the lines of needing something to occupy the processors controlling said hands.

Organum was indeed still online. A little older, a little wiser, and some would even argue a little crazier. And if told such, she would just laugh, and _kindly _remind them that their processors just weren't fast enough to comprehend her way of doing things.

Finally she let the wires hang limp before going about putting them in their proper places with an almost maternal tenderness. After a moment of checking to make sure everything was in order, she turned away from the wiring to the dark room surrounding once more. And in the absence of a distraction, the pain came back.

The throbbing ache in her spark caused by that small cut now so long ago. It kept her out of recharge until she could barely stand, and haunted her every activities. It was lessened when she had something to think about or do, but any time she took a pause, it floated back into her concious thought.

The hole in her spark that her mate once inhabited hurt as much now as it did when she first awoke from that frightful experiment, her daughter's worried face hovering above her. Admittedly, her bond with Ivory had indeed been damaged, but wasn't gone completely. And not once did it stop her from adoring the young femme.

A young femme that was almost all grown up....

A quiet smile came to Organum's tired face. Ivory had matured much better than she expected. In some ways, she was even more mature than her mother. And other than some....minor issues that the programming still caused, she was an all around good bot and amazing daughter.

Staticshroud was even considering a leadership position for her, which delighted Organum to no end.

She considered it an act of destiny that the two of them had met and joined the glitchlings, who at that time were very few in number. It was sheer luck that Braimond had stumbled upon their hiding place and offered them to join Staticshroud and small handful of others. And since Organum and Ivory had nowhere to go as it was, especially not anywhere that was safe, they had willingly accepted.

It had been good for Ivory, she believed, to be away from the chaos of war. And from any further damage her father may have caused. Organum was especially relieved that her former sparkmate apparently didn't find it worth his time to come searching for the youngling.

So she could live with a panging spark. The pain wasn't unbearable. She had survived this long, and that wasn't about to change so long as she had any say in the matter of what happened to her.

A proud smile came to her face as she looked about her at the beginnings of her next creation. Not quite an actual child of hers but....it came pretty close. And for a moment, the throbbing dulled to a sore twinge in her spark chamber once more.

So what if she was crazy?

It had gotten her this far, hadn't it?

-~~~~~-  
_I do not wanna to be afraid  
I do not wanna to die inside just to breathe in  
I'm tired of feeling so numb  
Relief exists I found it when  
I was cut_

* * *

Frog: This was a pain to write. I don't like "what ifs" and other like angst XP But it could have been worse I suppose. Trying to write things from her point of view did make an interesting challenge. I don't know what it is with me and single moms that are kind of controlling. Honestly it was just recently I realized how much Organum is like my other "mess with my kid and die" mother Danny XD

And the program Ivory was given is something simliar to what one of Lizard's OCs have (you haven't met him), so I kind of borrowed that idea XD

From here on out you're going to see a lot of reoccurring characters ;) For instance, Staticshroud and Organum will be appearing next chapter as well as new characters, and the chapter after that, Sparkler will be returning and ya'll will get to know what happened to her.

By and by there are links to a playlist that has all the songs I'm using and to a list of my/our OCs in case you get confused ;) And suggestions/comments/constructive criticism is always welcome!

Thanks for reading! Bye!!


	4. Volary

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Transformers or the song "Fellow Traveler" by Ginny Owens.

Genre: General/Friendship (sort of)

Frog: Really I would have liked a better song for this chapter if I could have found one, but I didn't. It's not bad though. I really like Volary, I have no idea why. He's just such a perfect counter measure to Ivoryspur I guess. They're actually the only two OCs I have so far that I have a confirmed pairing for, which would be each other ;) But I might not write it in, haven't decided yet.

So yeah, Ivory will be appearing in this chapter along with other characters from previous chapters. This chapter takes place while Ivory is about a preteen (she was a child for the first half of Organum's chapter), and Volary isn't much older. This chapter is more of a fun one.

* * *

_You can't change who I am  
Or the way that I think  
I can't change how you live  
Or the words that you speak  
But neither of us is a stranger to joy or pain  
No matter how we're different  
We're very much the same  
-~~~~~-_

_'I knew I shouldn't have left. Where did I think I was going to go?' _a young mech thought bitterly to himself as his systems began to online once more, _'It's just my luck that this would happen....'_

The quiet buzzing around him alerted the young mech that he wasn't where he left himself when he fell offline. Fear struck his spark. Had they found him? Oh _slag _was he ever in trouble! He'd be lucky if they didn't decide to use him for spare parts after this.

Spare parts....he hated those words....

He was now back to functioning normally...well as normally as could be expected in his current state, but didn't feel quite ready to light up his optics yet. He wanted to hang onto these last moments of blissful rest while he could. However, there was an irritating itching feeling in his left arm, and it took him a moment to realize that his arm....wasn't actually even there!

"Not again...." he moaned, unaware that he had just said that aloud.

"Oh! You're up!" a female voice to his side stated plainly.

The young mech jumped with a small shriek of surprise, hitting the wall on the other side of the berth he was resting on. His optics turned on quickly this time, revealing a tall femme with white optics. She smiled kindly at him, and bent down closer to the level of the berth, which he determined must be a lower bunk, and eased him back down into a restful position.

"Careful not to do anymore damage to yourself. It certainly won't help matters," she instructed gently, and he noticed a few tools in her hand. Had she been repairing him? He was sure he'd never met this femme before.

"Ah...." he looked around the room. Noting that nothing else looked familiar either, "Where am I?"

The mature femme made a small face in thought, "Mmmmm, Sybeeria I believe? It's just a lonely little outpost is all."

"Sybeeria?" he paused thoughtfully, trying to recall if he had ever heard of said outpost. Just as he was deciding that he hadn't, the door to the room they were in opened and a tall, dark green mech walked in. The younger, injured mech tensed.

"I see you're recovering," he nodded, a look of relief passing over his features, "I got worried back there when I found you. It's a miracle that you weren't bleeding more than you were. Loosing an arm like that."

"Ehh...." the young mech averted his optics, "N-not really. It's more like an...accident...."

"What is?" the femme questioned curiously, investigating his detached arm as though trying to figure out how it attached to him in the first place.

"Long story..." he reached up with his still functioning arm, "May I see?"

"Of course," the femme handed it to him and watched with intense fascination as he snapped it effortless back into place. The youngling flexed his left hand experimentally a few times, and rolled his shoulder. The other mech in the room looked completely shocked.

"It's supposed to do that?!" he asked, almost in alarm, as he came closer to the berth to get a better look.

"Both yes and no," the young mech muttered.

"Well that's new..." another voice mused from above. He jumped again, peering up to see a young off-white femme watching him from the bunk above his.

"As I said, it was an accident," he explained uncomfortably, shifting his legs underneath him.

The off-white femme swung down from the top bunk, coming to kneel in front of him. She eyed his arm closely for a moment, causing the young mech to shift restlessly under her gaze. After a moment, she reached out, and yanked his arm. With a small hiss of discomfort and a _clunk_ the arm came right off his body and hung limply in her hand. She stared at it, not quite sure what to think as the two mature bots stared at her blankly.

"Ivory!" the older femme reprimanded the younger, snatching the arm and returning it to its rightful owner. Ivory grimaced at her tone and frowned, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Well I'll be....." the tall mech muttered, watching as the arm was again reattached with ease, "An accident you say?"

"Yeah...something like that..."

There was a pause before the mature femme spoke, "Do you have a name?"

"Volary, miss," he nodded.

"It's nice to meet you, young Volary. You may call me Organum," her smile lessened slightly as she studied his face closely, "You're a Decepticon I presume, if those charming crimson optics of yours are any indication. So I suppose it's safe to assume this "accident" was an upgrade experiment of some sort, am I right? Wait, of _course_ I'm right," she added, rolling her optics at herself.

Volary just stared at her, his optics growing wide as the femme brought something to his attention that he hadn't considered before. He wasn't among fellow Decepticons. The two femmes had white optics. Or were they a very pale blue? He couldn't make up his mind. And the mech behind them had the tell-tail blue optics of an Autobot, though he seemed to be lacking any brand that the youngling could see. Regardless, he stiffened, and sunk further back into the berth, wondering why they hadn't already offlined him. Unless they were preparing for some kind of interrogation. Either way, he was pretty much done for.

"You don't look so good..." Ivory mused bluntly from where she knelt on the other end of the bunk, and then smirked slightly, "Almost like you're expecting us to tear you limb from limb."

"You kind of just did," Volary glared at her as best he could over his anxiety.

"I just took off _one _arm," Ivory snorted, crossing her arms.

"We aren't going to hurt you, Volary," the dark green mech reassured.

"Not unless he gives you reason to, you mean," Ivory frowned, almost as though she were lecturing him.

"No, we're not," Organum gave her a meaningful look that left no room for argument, "He's in bad enough shape as it is. I don't see how he could possibly be a threat, Decepticon or not," Ivory looked like she wanted to say something, but instead just sighed in defeat, and sat back quietly, "Now back to what I was originally going to ask," the tall femme began, "What exactly is the cause of this...condition of yours? I'm quite curious."

Volary edged away from her slightly, not sure he trusted these three. But then again, what did he have to loose from _not _telling them, "They were trying to make interchangeable parts," he explained awkwardly, not knowing all the details involved, "To make repairs faster. The idea was to take an injured arm off and then put a new one in place with little or no help from a medic. Unfortunately....they don't stay on very well by themselves. Have an annoying tendency to fall off when you least expect it..." he muttered, looking down at his knees.

"But it would be fixed when you reach your next frame, correct?" the dark green mech questioned, looking a tad bewildered by the very idea.

Volary just shrugged, "Don't know. The scientists seem to think I'll always be pretty useless after this. I don't know if there's something in my programming too, or if it can be fixed or not or anything...." he sighed heavily, leaning his head against the wall, "I think they were planning to make me a decoy of some sort. You know, someone who gets shot at so the actual fighters don't have to be."

"Is that why you were wandering about on your own?" Organum asked gently, he didn't answer, but the look in his optics seemed to tell his story well enough.

"Hmph," the dark green mech looked down thoughtfully, "Well then, since you obviously have no where else to go, _and _you have an unusual condition, I don't see why you couldn't stay here. There's plenty of room."

"Here?!" both Volary and Ivory said at once, in about the same tone of voice.

"He's a Decepticon!" the off-white femme argued, casting a glare his way.

"Well then he will be our _first _former Decepticon. We'd have to pick one up somewhere along the line, after all. So why not start with him?" Organum shrugged casually, "Besides, I think it would be good for you to have someone your own age near-abouts. And don't you try and argue with me, young femme, I'm your creator and I know best!"

Volary had to admit, she almost seemed _too _happy to make that statement. Ivory looked like she was desperate _not _to roll her optics at the older femme, and the dark green mech just seemed overall amused by them both.

"Well then, Volary," said mech turned back to the young Decepticon, "Would you like to join us?"

Volary looked down shamefully, "I'm not sure I want to be an Auto..."

"Well that's good, because we don't want to be Autobots either!" Organum interrupted, her face aglow.

"You're not?!" he froze, looking at the other bots gathered. The idea of a bot belonging to neither faction had never once occurred to him. Showed what he knew about the universe...

"Nope," the dark green mech smiled kindly at him, "We're just a ragtag bunch of glitches that no one wants."

_'Not so different from me....'_ he continued to stare at them as that sunk in. Could he really belong here? The two mature bots seemed welcoming and friendly enough. Ivory....not so much, but he could deal with that.

"M-may I?" he asked hesitantly, surprised by how quiet his voice was.

"Of course," Organum cupped his cheek with her hand.

"We would be happy to have you. There's no need to worry young one, you're safe here," the mech nodded.

Volary managed a small, albeit nervous smile, "Then I guess.....I might as well!" _'Not like going back to the Decepticons is an option anways...'_

"Excellent!!" Organum trilled, standing up straight and clasping her hands together, "I shall inform Sniperkite that he needs to get his quarters in order. You'll be staying with him."

"Is he going to be ok with that?" Ivory asked, suddenly sounding worried.

Organum paused in the doorway and shrugged again, "Does it matter? Sniperkite will be a very good influence on Volary as he grows, and an equally good guardian. Besides I'm sure he won't mind! Volary is such a charming little youngling, he'll have no reason to complain, now will he?"

She smiled directly at the now former Decepticon as she made that statement, and he kind of gave a little nod. And with that, Organum was out the door. Ivory and the dark green mech shared a look and then sighed heavily.

* * *

A few orns later:

Ivory walked calmly down one of the dimly lit hallways of the outpost located at Sybeeria. She was walking steadily, but her small face was contorted in an irritated grimace, and she was secretly seething under her metal plating. And every so often, she would grumble something to herself, though no one in audio range could quite make out if she was actual speaking intelligible phrases or not.

Finally she stopped abruptly, causing the other youngling that had been following right on her heels to bump into her accidentally. She kept her gaze on the floor in front of her, though her optic twitched at the impact.

"Sorry," Volary smiled sheepishly down at her, even though she wasn't looking at him. He took a step back to give her space again, and watched her as she stood motionless.

"_Why_," she began curtly, "are you _following_ me?!"

He shrugged, "Don't know my way around very well yet. And I don't have much else to do anyways."

She slowly turned and faced him, glowering. And it only irritated her more that she had to tilt her head up ever so slightly to look at him. Why did _everyone _have to be taller than her?! When she got to her final frame, she was going to make _sure _it was not challenged by height.

"Do you have to follow so _close_? I can honestly feel you venting down my neck," she growled.

"I'm not walking _that _close behind you....am I?" he tilted his head to the side, frowning as he tried to recall just how close he _had _been following her.

The young former Decepticon had been sticking with her like an annoying song in your head that just won't go away ever since his injuries had been all patched up. She supposed it was mostly due to the fact that they were approximately the same age as well as the lack of anything for two younglings to do for most of the day. She had tried loosing him a few times, but never for very long. Maybe that was why he was tailing her so closely. But why should he complain? It was giving him something to do, wasn't it? And she got to have at least a little time to herself, so it was really a win-win situation all around. But no, he just _had _to stick to her side like some strange parasite.

Ok, so _that _one was a _little _mean...

Parasites aren't normally bigger than their hosts anyways.

"_Just _a _little_," Ivory snorted, stretching her hands out in front of her and moving them up and down as though feeling a wall, "I would be much happier if you would give me _at least _this much space." There was a small pause as her hands fell back to her sides.

"I'm bothering you, aren't I?" Volary commented dryly, though he didn't make any move to leave.

Ivory thought about that a moment, wondering if she should spare his feelings or not. The youngling mech had been a lot harder to read that she thought he would be based on her first impression. Like the look he was giving her now for instance. It was completely vacant and yet at the same time attentive, quietly waiting for her answer without providing any clue as to what he himself was thinking behind those cutting crimson optics.

She made a small face, somewhere between amusement and frown, "It's kind of both yes and no."

"Meaning?" he pressed, pursing his lips.

Ivory just shrugged, "You never ever leave me alone, which is kind of getting old, but oddly enough I think you're growing on me."

"Really?" he looked visibly more relaxed, and was even starting to smile.

"Yeah," she muttered, reluctant to admit it but doing so anyways, "Really though, what do you expect? You just won't go away! So either I adapt or hide in my room all day until you get the message! And to be honest, I don't really like my room as it is."

He laughed, "You're strange, you know that?"

"Look who's talking, red eyes," she pointed accusingly at his face, her finger mere inches from his nose. He lightly shoved the offending digit away.

"There's a wall here, remember?" he teased, moving his hands in a motion mimicking hers from earlier.

"I am free to cross my own nonexistent wall any time I want," Ivory huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

"And what if _I _have an invisible wall?"

"If you _had_ one, you wouldn't have been following me like that!"

"Maybe mine's just smaller than yours."

"Yeah, smaller as in right up against your plating!"

"Why do you always have to yell?" Volary questioned, amusement dancing in his optics.

"Simple. You obviously have a very thick processor, therefore I have to speak louder to make sure what I'm saying gets through to you," she explained with a small shrug.

"You _do _realize you just sounded a lot like your mother."

"........I did?"

"Yep. You did."

Ivory's optics widened ever so slightly, causing him to laugh. The youngling femme quickly shook it off, and glared at him as he continued to chuckle.

"It's not funny! My mother is very intelligent, and was once a respected Cybertronian politician."

"And she has a _few _tangled wires in her processors!"

Ivory's glare suddenly turned much more dangerous by youngling standards, "Take that back!"

"Why?" he grinned, still shaking slightly from laughter, "You of all bots should know that she does! I just met her not long ago and it took me no time at all to figure _that _much out."

Her optic started twitching again, "Stop talking before I hurt you."

He just smirked at her and snorted indignantly, "What could _you _possibly do? I'm bigger, stronger, older, and actually know a thing or two about combat simply from watching it!"

"_And_," she smirked at him and lunged, grabbing both arms and yanking them from their sockets, "You're also easy to dismember!"

He gasped in surprise staggered backwards before collapsing from a lack of balance. She just stared at him with the slightest air of levity floating about her as she tilted her head at him and smiled.

He exhaled heavily in frustration at his current predicament, "Ok fine, you win. I'll try to be more respectful. Can I have my limbs back, please?"

She eyed him for a moment, before shrugging and crossing the short distance between them and kneeling by his side. With a _snap _and a _click _she easily reattached his right arm, and then proceeded to do the same with the left. He tested his joints out a bit to make sure they were functioning properly as she watched.

Satisfied, Volary smiled warmly at her, "Thanks."

"Don't get too used to it," she sniffed, "Especially if you continue to follow me around. I might just find it more worth my time to leave you stranded in the hallway next time."

"Yeah sure," he said absently, leaning against the wall to help him stand up straight again.

Ivory said nothing more, and turned to leave. After she had gone a few steps and he didn't move, she paused to glance over her shoulder at him, "Well? Do you _want _me to leave you here? Or would you at least like to make it back to the others first?"

A small smile slowly crept over his features, and he quickly fell into pace behind her again, much more mindful of her personal space, though she couldn't help but notice he was only just beyond the edge of it. But she decided to leave it be for now.

After all, what kind of friend would that make her?

* * *

Frog: Yay for their first Deceptinot!! And I suppose that makes Staticshroud and them Antibots? XD I'm aware how completely lame this all sounds........Oh it's_ far_ too late to be typing anything, what's WRONG with me!!!!

Well there are a few things I'd like to point out here. First of all, you just caught a glimpse of the more eccentric side of Organum's personality, which is how she normally acts. Next is that since both Ivory and Volary are still younglings in this chapter, it's a little different from how they'll be later on (next chapter in particular, which is dedicated to Ivoryspur). Also, Volary does have some kind of weird programming glitch, which will cause him to have this problem of loosing his arms and legs randomly to be a permanent condition. But he's a good sport XD

I just hope the second part wasn't too long. This is my longest chapter so far, but I thought I might try to show the developing friendship between the two of them. You'll get to see some of the results of it next chapter when they're adults ;) Still not sure if I'm going to make them a pairing or not though.

I think that's all I have to say for now. Any questions, comments or anything else is appreciated. I think I have most of the introductory chapters lined up for the important characters. Just need one more song before I can post what chapter 8 (or is it 7?) will be on the playlist. And then there will be two prelude chapters to the actual fanfic. After that I might just keep making one-shots to explain things or some of the other characters, such as the ones that belong to my sister.

Thanks for reading! And please review! Bye!!


	5. Ivoryspur

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Transformers or the song "Monster" by Skillet.

Genre: Drama/Friendship/Angst

Warnings: Mild violence and gore. Nothing too graphic though.

Frog: This chapter is sort of a continuation of the last one, since it deals a lot with Ivory and Volary, just now they're adults. And I got into more detail describing what Ivory (who is henceforth to be known as Ivoryspur) looks like for two reasons 1-I think it's important to who she is and 2-I actually _know _what she looks like all the way down to her transformation sequence XD And I only have two other OCs that I can say that for!

Actually there's just a lot of describing period in this chapter XP At least for the first half or so.

There will also be appearences of some other characters such as Sparkler and one or two other OCs who will be making their first showing, and mentions of other OCs as well. Ivoryspur's "glitch" is her half-loaded combat programming, which I borrowed more or less from one of my sister's OCs in an unrelated story (not posted). And speaking of my sister, it appears I'm inadvertadly drawing attention to her stories as well :D Even though she hasn't updated recently. At least I think that's my fault, since every time I've posted a new chapter, someone favorites her story XD I'm almost jealous, but I realize not everyone cares so much for these OC tales of mine. And I like reading her stories too, so I'm glad they're getting attention.

Thank you Faecat for your reviews and your input!

And here comes the end of my annoyingly long author's note! Hurrah!!!

* * *

_The secret side of me, I never let you see  
I keep it caged but I can't control it  
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly  
I feel the rage and I just can't hold it_

_It's scratching on the walls, in the closet, in the halls  
It comes awake and I can't control it  
Hiding under the bed, in my body, in my head  
Why won't somebody come and save me from this, make it end?  
-~~~~-_

"I have to say, Archveil, I'm impressed," Ivoryspur muttered, looking over the plans the architect had presented her. The other femme, Archveil, a slender white and tan former Autobot who's processors went on the fritz any time she looked at bright colors for too long, gave a small smile of pride.

"What's that?" Volary asked, pointing at something on the blueprints. Ivoryspur set her jaw, having just noticed that the mech was hovering over her shoulder...._again_.

"Do you mind?" she asked, giving him a look. It actually didn't bother her as much as she led everyone to believe, but she still prefered a little bit of breathing room. He frowned, confusion written plainly on his face before she saw it click.

"Oh right, sorry!" He stepped around her to stand at her side where he could still get a good view of the plans.

Ivoryspur rolled her optics while Archveil just watched the two with a faintest hint of amusement, and then proceeded to explain Volary's question to him. The taller femme pretended to listen, not particularly interested so long as everything worked the way their newly found architect said it would.

Their group, the Glitchlings as Staticshroud called it now, had grown considerably in recent vorns. In fact, they had grown out of their original base in Sybeeria, forcing them to relocate here, to this mostly uninhabited planet, equally out of the way of any Autobot or Decepticon. Hence why Archveil had written up plans for making a new home base that she would help them build along with her two companions, Sapsucker, a mech that was permanently magnetized, and Deathspeak, who would repeat himself over and over again without ceasing until Archveil tasered him. Which wasn't actually as bad as it sounded, he appreciated people stopping him from annoying people to death (hence the name). In fact, it was rumored that he had been kicked out of both the Autobots and the Decepticons do to his glitch being such a processor-ache.

Of course, their location wasn't the only thing that was new....

As Archveil spoke, Ivoryspur found herself looking down at her newly upgraded claws, clicking them together quietly. The long, white knife-like digits complimented her black paint perfectly. Gone was the innocent off-white youngling that had first joined Staticshroud and the others so long ago. She was much taller, more so than most femmes, and yet Volary still beat her by a foot or two, which never ceased to irritate her. Her arms were thick and heavy and reached down past her knee joints like too long pendulums on either side of her moderately armored form. She lacked a wrist joint, but as far as Ivory was concerned, it wasn't really necessary.

Organum had been very reluctant to give her daughter anything in the form of weaponry, but Ivoryspur had insisted due to the fact that most of the members of their little group were incapable of defending themselves. It had taken a lot of convincing and arguing before her creator had given her consent, and even helped with the necessary upgrade-process. They had finally completed her claws just before arriving on this planet, and it wasn't a moment too soon.

Absently Ivory allowed her gaze to drift over their temporary base camp, looking a little worse for the ware, but still livable. Mostly, everyone just stayed in Braimond's ship when they recharged, but it was so cramped in there, that their waking hours were typically spent outside. They had had a few run-ins with the local wildlife. Strange predatory creatures that apparently came by this area often with sharp claws and voracious appitites. Fortunately they couldn't eat metal.

Not that it stopped them from trying....

"I see you've already started," Staticshroud smiled as he approached them, having just come back from one of his episodes. These recent events weren't doing much for his stress levels, "How do things look so far?"

"Pretty good, actually," Volary nodded, and then gestured to a cliff face that wasn't terribly far away, "Archveil, you did say we could mine the materials we need here, correct?"

"Of course. At least that would be the easiest way to go about it," she answered.

"Then do you think that we could actually build our base _into _the surrounding cliffs? It would be more secure that way as I see it."

Archveil looked down in thought for a few long moments, "I don't see why not. That could considerably lessen the amount of work we have to put into this project actually."

Staticshroud grinned, stroking his chin, "Good thinking Volary."

"Thanks!" he beamed in an almost youngling-like manner.

As fascinating as all this talk of construction was, Ivoryspur still found her thoughts directed elsewhere, "How's Sniperkite holding up?"

Their leader sighed heavily, leaning on the make-shift table in front of him, "Much better, thankfully. Still weak, but Sparkler says he'll recover."

Ivoryspur nodded in acknowledgement. Sniperkite had so far been the only serious victim of the planet's inhabitants. Some of the Glitchlings had gotten small cuts and dents, but he had suffered a severed energon line in his arm. The shimmering blue liquid apparently did not taste very good to his attacker, who quickly decided that Sniperkite wasn't the best choice in prey and wandered off. However the wound was still bad enough that if they hadn't had an actual medic with them at the time, he might have not made it.

That medic was Sparkler, a newer addition to their ranks. Before her, they had only had Organum to do repairs. But since the older femme hadn't had any actual training in the field, she could only help so much, and had at times managed to make things worse. So Sparkler was a welcome change. She was mostly positive and friendly toward everyone, though there was a stubborn streak in her that she was beginning to show more and more as she grew comfortable around them, but she was quickly proving herself to be a loyal and dependable member of the team.

Apparently she had some kind of self-mutated medical programming. It still learned and processed like that of a regular medic, but this one was stronger. It shut down all other unnecessary processes when it was running. Her emotional processors, communication systems, and in some cases her memory storage in which nothing that was pertinent to the current situation wasn't stored in her files at all. Organum said that the empowered medical programming may in fact be able to shut down other systems and functions depending on Sparkler's current situation, but they were yet to come across that.

"Speaking of Sparkles," Volary waved casually at the approaching dusty-orange medic. She smiled, coming to a stop by their small gathering with a little hop, a vaguely curious look in her optics as she gave the blueprints a once-over.

"Getting to work already?" she asked lightly.

"The sooner the better," their leader made a soft coughing-like sound as he began committing exact details to memory.

A silver gleam in Sparkler's hand drew Ivoryspur's attention, and she glared down at the smaller femme, "What is that?"

Sparkler jumped in surprise, and quickly hid the item behind her back, "What's what?" she asked, her attempt at looking innocent being undermined by the nervous way she hunched her shoulders.

Ivory's white optics narrowed further, "Why do you have a Resetter?"

Sparkler straightened her posture and set her jaw, "Organum gave it to me. She thought it might come in handy..."

"_You _aren't supposed to have one of those. Only my creator, Staticshroud and Volary are. _Not _you!"

"Calm down Ivory. She _is _our medic now. It's perfectly fitting that she would have one too. Besides, it can serve more than one purpose..." Volary tried to reason with her, taking a step between the two femmes to deter any potential injury.

Ivoryspur gave no indication that she had heard, instead continuing to glare at Sparkler coldly. The Resetter had been invented by her mother for one purpose. To quickly and efficiently knock a bot unconscious. The effect only lasted for as long as the tip of the device was plugged into the back of the neck, and completely reset the affected bots systems. Originally it had been built for the sole purpose of powering down her combat programming, and only bots that she absolutely trusted had any access to it.

You see, when Organum interrupted the program's download into the youngling Ivory's systems, she had inadvertently caused a slight glitch in her systems, for Ivory hadn't had the chance to download the necessary data to power down her combat programming on her own. She could stay in that mode indefinitely unless she went into a type of recharge or stasis. And that was dangerous considering that being in a permanent mind-set of battle made her already somewhat violent temper uncontrollable, and the slightest movement could be perceived as a threat.

"H-he's right," Sparkler piped up, edging a little more behind the tall mech just to be safe, "It'll be useful for keeping patients in a temporary stasis until we have a functioning med-bay."

Ivoryspur's expression didn't change, though she did move her gaze down to the blueprints for lack of anything else worth looking at. It wasn't that she distrusted Sparkler, it was just that she didn't trust her with her enough yet to feel comfortable with the smaller femme holding that device.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, but didn't bother to look up. She knew who it Volary, but wasn't sure if she should be annoyed with him or if she should just leave it. However before she could decide, they heard Sniperkite yelling and turned to see the injured mech approaching them at a surprisingly quick pace.

"Aren't you supposed to be resting?" Sparkler yelled back, putting her hands on her hips.

He stumbled up to them, completely ignoring the medic's protests, "Deathspeak wandered off by himself. We can't find him on the ship," he reported, his voice drawn and tense.

"Why would he leave the ship?! That fool!" Archveil growled shaking her head.

"Supposedly he wanted to collect some ore samples from the cliffs. Sapsucker wasn't really paying attention and Braimond was in recharge in his chair so he must have just thought it was ok to go!"

Staticshroud sighed in frustration, "We'll have to go find him then. Archveil get inside, it's getting late anyhow. Take Sniperkite with you. You three are coming with me,"he commanded, gesturing briefly to Ivoryspur, Volary and Sparkler before walking off toward the nearest cliff face.

"Why me?" Volary frowned, almost whining as he follwed the two femmes and their leader at a brisk pace, "I don't even have any weapons!"

"We don't know if we're going to come across any monsters or not," Ivory sighed, trying to sound at least vaguely reassuring.

"And if we do, you can just step on 'em!" Sparkler piped up. Ivoryspur rolled her optics.

"Much easier said than done with his coordination...They aren't that small anyways," the black femme muttered. Volary growled in irritation, but otherwise remained quiet, and Sparkler tried to stifle her giggles and run at the same time.

"Wait!" they all stopped abruptly when Staticshroud froze in front of them, looking around himself warily, "Do you hear that?"

It didn't take them long to catch the noise he was mentioning. It sounded like a cry of _"Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back!...."_Yep, definitely Deathspeak. They shared a quick glance, readying themselves for anything as they maneuvered around the large rocks in the area toward his frantic, broken-record shouts.

"Found him!" Sparkler pointed down a nearby ledge. Sure enough, there was Deathspeak, clinging to the face of a boulder, kicking and yelling at the prowling beasts below that every so often took a leap and tried to drag him back down where he was more accessible. The imperiled mech spotted his comrads, still shouting the same phrase over and over again, and waved his arms around in distress.

"How safe is it, do you think, to jump?" Volary asked the other bots, gaze shifting rapidly back and forth between Deathspeak and the cliff at their feet.

"We'd survive, and wouldn't likely sustain any injuries..." Staticshroud was also inspecting the ledge, "But the impact might leave us stunned a moment as we get our bearings, and I'm not sure we want to risk that."

"Is there time to find another way down?" Sparkler looked at their leader worriedly, and then back down at Deathspeak when another one of the monsters lunged at him, only to collide with the mech's foot and be forced back to the ground.

"I can't say for certain. Either way, we'll be taking chances," the dark green mech set his jaw, knowing full well there wasn't much time to make a decision either.

Deathspeak's shouting grew louder to the point that he was shrieking _"Get back!! Get back!! Get back!!"_right at them, and Ivoryspur had the slightest inkling that he may be trying to tell them something, but was unable to change his current phrase. They would have to change that somehow, and she knew just the way to do it.

The only warning Volary got was a certain look in Ivoryspur's optics that he had come to know as one thing. In a flash, and with a heavy _clunk_, his arm was gone, and in the black femme's hand, who promptly launched it in Deathspeak's direction. It hit him full straight in the face, causing the unfortunate mech to squawk in agitation and fall from his perch.

"Ivoryspur!!" Sparkler shrieked in horror as the beasts closed in around a very disoriented Deathspeak. He stood up shakily, wavering slightly but not necessarily looking upset when his gaze once again came to rest on the group above him.

_"Behind you!! Behind you!! Behind you!!" _he chanted, barely jumping out of the way of one of the creature's claws.

Ivoryspur glanced to the side just as two of the monsters jumped on Staticshroud's back. He lost his balance and tumbled over the ledge, hitting the ground below with a loud clanging of metal. Sparkler screamed in surprise and Volary stumbled to the side, his own center of balance slightly off-kilter from missing an arm. The attack overrode Ivory's logic processors and activated her attack programming, and without a second thought, she jumped down to Staticshroud's side, swiping one of the creatures off his back almost as soon as she landed.

The forest green mech groaned, and stood himself up, grabbing the other beast that was taste-testing his shoulder plating, and tossing it against another rock. With the two most immediate threats out of the way, Ivoryspur moved onto the larger group that was closing in on Deathspeak, and easily sliced through two of them with her claws. Staticshroud moved toward the group as well, but remained far out of her way as he activated his own weapon which could most easily be described as a buzz-saw on a tether, and whipped it into another beast, tearing at its flesh and sending organic matter spattering in all directions.

Sparkler and Volary soon joined them as well, the larger mech taking the wounded and weary Deathspeak and moving him out of harms way as the femme covered them defensively, flashing bright flames from the torch mounted on her arm any time one of the beasts got too close for comfort. Ivoryspur hardly paid attention to any of this however, her processors completely focused on the task at hand.

They managed to kill close to two thirds of the creatures before the rest retreated off to Primus knows where. She watched them go, her optics sharp and hard, and senses on alert, looking for any other threat. Someone took a step too close, and she spun around, claws ready to hack into anything and everything she told them to.

Instinctively, Volary took a step back, his expression gentle but tense as he watched her a moment before speaking, "Take it easy, Ivory. It's just me."

Ivoryspur just continued to stare at him warily like he might suddenly transform into one of those beasts, and didn't lessen her battle-ready stance. His arm was laying on the ground, not far away, looking thoroughly chewed upon, and she noticed the Resetter in his remaining hand. Her optics narrowed.

"I don't need _that_!" she spat, claws flexing.

"Yes you do," Volary tried to reason with her, knowing full well that it rarely worked, "Your judgment is just being clouded by your combat programming. You can trust me, Ivory, I promise. I'm not a threat to you in any way, shape, or form."

She just gave a low, primal hiss, daring him to come closer. He sighed quietly, doing just that as he continued to speak, "This isn't you, Ivoryspur. We all know that, including you. Now just..."

His words broke off into a pained howl as white claws pierced his chassis, and lifted him upwards. Ivoryspur held him there for a moment, the metal continuing to rip as his weight dragged him down over the sharp appendages, severing lines and wires and scraping his spark chamber. Then she threw him to the ground near her feet and moved as though to finish the job when a thick, metallic rope swung around her neck and pulled her back several paces. She tried desperately to severe the line, but couldn't quite get a grip, and suddenly she felt something pressed against the back of her neck, her systems flickered and shut down and she collapsed.

It didn't take long for everything to reboot. Ivoryspur's optics onlined and she allowed them focused on the soil and pebbles closest to them, before she used her long arms to prop herself up off the ground. Staticshroud retracted his tether, and she noticed Sparkler kneeling next to her, a Resetter gripped tightly in her hand. The dusty-organge femme stared at her a moment longer, and, determining that she was sane once more, dropped her shoulders in relief. Ivoryspur glanced briefly at her face, and noticed the other femme was giving her a sympathetic, but still worried look. She was about to ask, but Sparkler's blue optics brightened in both light and intensity, the tell-tail sign that her medical programming was activated, and she left.

"Are you alright?" Staticshroud asked hesitantly, leaning over her.

Ivoryspur shook her head, feeling dazed as she tried to recall what had happened, "I-I think...so..."

A fleck of blue caught her attention, and she looked down at her claws. She lifted one up, closer to her face as her optics widened in horror as shimmering blue fluid intermingled with mushy organic matter dripped from them. Energon...

She didn't want to look. She didn't want to see the damage she had done. But she couldn't stop herself as her optic's focus changed to the scene behind her trembling claw. Deathspeak was propping Volary up as the larger mech winced in agony and Sparkler swiftly went about her work of repairing his injuries. Energon flowed freely from the open wounds, coating his chassis.

She was barely aware of Staticshroud's hand as he helped her to stand. She had always known that she was cabable of hurting someone. It had been a risk she knew she was taking when she convinced Organum to give her weapons. But she had never thought she actually _would_. And she certainly hadn't expected to hurt him.

"I-I.....I....." Ivoryspur couldn't speak, or even think for that matter. She took a step back, her body tensing to run. She almost did, but there were suddenly a pair of strong arms around her. She struggled, but couldn't find the strength to break free as Staticshroud turned her around to face him.

"Don't think you can run from this, Ivory. That won't solve anything," he moved his hands to her shoulders, speaking firmly but gently at the same time, "He's going to be alright."

"I...." she tried again, liquid starting to leak from her optics as she choked back a sob, "I'm s-sorry. So so sorry. I didn't mean to...."

"Hush....No one thinks you did. You weren't yourself," the dark green mech pulled her into a reassuring embrace as she unknowingly leaned her head on his shoulder, "It's over now."

"I'm sorry....I'm so sorry........Sorry......" she started weeping, her entire form trembling as Staticshroud did his best to comfort her.

"Sir. The pacient has been stabalized. He needs to be moved to a more secure location in order for me to finish repairing the damage," came Sparkler's emotionless voice.

"Very well. Thank you Sparkler," Staticshroud nodded. The medic's optics dimmed to their usual levels as she began functioning normally once more.

Their leader slowly pulled away from the still shaking Ivoryspur, patting her on the shoulder as he went to help Deathspeak carry Volary back to their ship. He appeared to have been put into a state of unconsciousness to keep him from feeling too much more pain, but she couldn't be sure. Sparkler was off to the side retrieving his arm.

"I-I can carry him..." Ivoryspur murmured, barely audible to the other three. She frowned when they all gave her startled looks, "My arms are bigger. It's easy for me," she reasoned. Staticshroud and Deathspeak shared a glance.

"_Should we let her? Should we let her? Should we..."_Staticshroud smacked Deathspeak over the head, stopping him mid-repeat. Taser's worked better, but it still stopped the living broken record player.

Staticshroud said nothing, and simply nodded to Ivory. He helped her to pick up Volary so that he was arranged securely in her arms. The black femme glanced down briefly at her close friend, but quickly had to look away as her spark pulsed painfully in her chassis. Their leader put a hand on her shoulder with a reassuring smile.

"If we have everything, we should be going," the dark green mech looked around at the othe bots. Seeing they were all ready, he started off back toward their ship and the rest followed.

Ivoryspur heard a small groan, and chanced a look down at at the former Decepticon in her arms. His red optics were dim, but online, and his face was contorted in a small grimace. She almost stopped walking, but knew they had to keep going if he was to get the proper medical attention she knew he needed.

Volary forced a small smile onto his face, "You ok, Ivory?"

"Me?!" she glared, ignoring the curious stares Deathspeak and Sparkler were giving her, "You're the one that's.....that's....."

He shifted slightly, as though to shrug, "Just thought I'd ask. You don't look so good."

Ivoryspur looked away with a small sigh, "I'm fine Volary."

"You sure?" she had to admit, the genuine concern in his voice surprised her. She merely nodded, and went back to looking straight ahead. There was a long pause as Ivoryspur tried to ignore the strained sounds of Volary's systems.

"Sorry...." he muttered, causing her head to snap back in his direction.

"For what? I'm the one that should be....."

"For putting you in this situation," he answered quickly.

Ivoryspur sighed again, this time more in exasperation than anything else, "Not _everything _is your fault, you know."

"I'm aware of that, yes," he paused, "I just....don't want you to beat yourself up about this, ok?"

She stopped and just looked at him for a good long moment before hesitantly agreeing, "I-I won't..."

He nodded weakly, shutting down his optics in exhaustion as she began walking again. Of course it was a lie. They _both _knew that. She would never be able to forgive herself for this. Not only had she hurt someone by mistake, but it just _had _to be him too. However, Volary knew he couldn't stop her from thinking the way she thought. He would always be her friend, no matter how many times he may get struck or otherwise injured on purpose and on accident in the vorns to come. He knew she would never kill him, no matter what everyone said her combat-programming was capable of.

That didn't make her feel any less like a monster for doing it though...

* * *

Frog: Dang that was long!! But finally it's done. And as tempting as it is to make this 5000 words long, I don't think I'll do that to you, and I'll try to keep this end note short.

Like so!

Please review if you have any questions, comments, or just want to say something. I'd really appreciate it. My sister is working on finishing up her stories, just be patient, it's coming. And check my profile for links to my OC list and the playlist for this series.

Thanks for reading! Bye!!


	6. Spectral

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Transformers or the song " "Breathe" by Superchick. (yeah I know, I listen to Superchick too much XD)

Genre: Tragedy/Hurt/Comfort

Frog: Aw great. Another sad chapter *pouts* In fact next chapter won't be so happy either. Ah well, I gotta do what I gotta do. Sorry this took so long. I've just kind of had a few weeks where I haven't felt much like reading or writing anything XP

This chapter is about Spectral, who belongs to, believe it or not, Lizard and I's youngest sister Hyphen!!! Yep! So this is technically her first appearance on anything other than on our profile. You got anything you'd like to say Hyphen?

Hyphen: Um....No...

F: Well fine, be that way *sticks tongue out* So anyways, Spectral here suffers from I guess the Cybertronian equivalent of night terrors. I know it doesn't work quite like this, but I felt this was fitting for his character. This is also a contest entry for the guild on Gaia ;)

* * *

_Each breath breathed means we're alive  
And life means that we can find  
The reasons to keep on getting by  
And if reasons we can't find  
We'll make up some to get by  
'Til breath by breath we'll leave this behind_

_-~~~~-_

Spectral didn't want it to happen.

But he knew it would. It always did. There was no escaping it.

It seemed the moment he slid into recharge, his supposedly resting processors started whirring, sorting through memory files that he didn't want to visit ever again. But he did. Every fragging night.

He was on rummaging through the aftermath of a tense battle between the Autobots and his own faction, the Decepticons. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't be out here at all. His specialty was interrogation, and so he preferred to keep to the dark, confined spaces of his element. And right now all he wanted to do was to return to his secure cocoon.

As soon as he found his sparkmate, that is...

Spectral clambered over the lifeless shell of a larger mech, faction unknown and not worthy of his attention anyways for on the other side he saw her. He called out her name, but she didn't seem to hear, so he quickened his pace toward her. However the more he walked, the farther away she seemed to be until all of a sudden he found himself a mere few feet away.

She looked at him then, or at least he thought it was her. Whatever it was he wasn't even certain it was online or not. The once stunning dark red optics were dimmed to almost nothing and her frame was unnaturally still. He hesitated as he stared at her and tentatively reached out saying her name.

His fingers brushed against her cheek and she lurched, screaming and causing Spectral to jump back as a blade was drawn from his mate's back and she crumpled to the ground. He looked on in stunned horror as the Autobot that killed her retreated, seemingly unaware that he was standing right there and then vanishing like a mist. Spectral's knees buckled beneath him as he fell to his mate's side. He shrieked her name, wanting desperately to comfort her somehow but his hands wouldn't let him touch her and he watched helplessly as her optics offlined.

Their bond was broken as her spark too faded and all light was gone from his world as he screamed in agony as his own spark fluctuated and stretched and pulled, pounding on the walls of his spark casing, needing to find its mate once more and be reassured that she was still alive even though there was no such comfort to be found.

His screaming continued for what felt like an eternity as he was forced to look at her dark, lifeless face until the world around him began to change and suddenly the shadow that looked back at him was a differant face altogether.

Spectral sat up with a start, nearly knocking into Braimond in his haste to finally be rid of his dream world. The maroon and gold mech that had awoken him from his recurring nightmare simply watched him in silence as he hung his head in his hands. Deathspeak peered cautiously from the bunk above his, having grown used to this nightly routine, but still feeling concern for the former Decepticon nonetheless.

He suffered these horrible memories every time he feel into a deep recharge and sometimes even a lighter nap. They had been going on for so long he no longer knew if what he saw was what had really happened or if it was just his imagination that had created this dreadful world he was repeatedly trapped in. He couldn't even say if he had ever seen his sparkmate die or if he had even entered the battlefield at all looking for her. All he knew was that she was gone forever, and that his spark experienced the pain of loosing her over and over again to the point he almost wished he could offline as well.

_So why didn't he just end it?_

He slowly looked up when something nudged his elbow and saw Braimond extending a cube of energon to him. After a moment, he took it and settled his back against the wall of his berth, sipping quietly as his spark once again began to pulse normally. Braimond watched him a moment longer and moved to stand.

"Why am I here, Braimond?" Spectral asked suddenly, looking into the energon cube with an expression of complete loss.

The maroon and gold mech paused and sat back down, crossing his legs and leaning against the opposite wall in a manner very similarly to Spectral's. Some of the others said that Braimond was "soulless" but he begged to differ. In fact, Spectral was the only Glitchling to refer to him as a "he" and not an "it". Brai just had a very malleable soul in his opinion. The mech (or at least they assumed that was his gender as no one had ever bothered to ask) would mirror the personality traits of whoever he was speaking to. It was something Spectral had found to be very comforting as the older mech was probably the only one who he felt could truly understand him.

"You're here because the Decepticons would not accept you any longer," Braimond answered quitely, knowing fully well that wasn't the answer Spectral was looking for, but it was in the younger, back and red accented mech's personality to be vague until prompted to be otherwise.

"I mean why am I alive..." Spectral muttered, correcting himself, "Why do I bother living at all?"

Deathspeak clambered down from the top bunk and sat cross legged on the floor across from them, his pumpkin-orange optics taking on a more mature, friendly glow than the usual naivity they held, "Why do any of us? Why do any of us? Why do a--"

He received a firm knock to the back of the head courtesy of Braimond and was silenced as the maroon mech turned back to their third room mate, "We're all rejected after all, aren't we? So why are any of us here alive right now?" he mused, continuing on Deathspeak's thought as he now copied the youngest mech's personality, "And there may not even be an answer to that question! Maybe we _don't_have a reason to stay online!"

"Then what's the point!?" Spectral clenched the energon cube in his hands until it was on the verge of breaking.

Braimond smiled his rare, knowing smile that made Spectral feel like an immature little adolescent, "Because we're all looking for a reason. No one here, not even you, is willing to die yet, and so we keep living and keep hoping that somewhere along the line we'll find a purpose for our existance again."

"Some of us already have! Some of us already ha--" Braimond gave Deathspeak a slight smile as he hit him that time and the youngest mech grinned back at him proudly.

"And someday, you will too. But it will take time," the maroon and gold mech instructed gently as he rose to his feet. Spectral merely grunted in response, resenting that he was being spoken to like a youngling but appreciating the insight the older and younger mechs were giving him. He tossed the now empty energon cube onto the desk near his berth and settled back down as his room mates returned to their respective bunks as well.

It would be a long time before Spectral found his reason for living again. But he would find it just the same...

* * *

Frog: .......That was a LOT deeper than I thought it would be. To the point where I had to change the song lyrics I was using originally because it was no longer about the same thing XP Random fact: Braimond and Deathspeak are based of the Fire Emblem characters Braimond and Dennis :3 I couldn't resist crossing the fandoms and making the two of them room mates.

Oddly enough I think that's all I have to say!! Next chapter will be a non-OC aka Sunstreaker. Yes, I made him a Glitchling so there XD He doesn't show up in the movie anyways so this will be my reasons for it.

Review if you feel so inclined and thanks for reading! Or if you want to give me some advice you're welcome to put it in a review or a comment. Have a nice weekend and hopefully the next chapter won't be so far away. Bye!!


	7. Sunstreaker

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Transformers or the song "Favorite Disease" by Thousand Foot Krutch. I do not claim to own Sunstreaker either, I'm just turning him into a Glitchling. And Illusion belongs to Lizard ;)

Genre: Drama

Frog: For once….I really have nothing to say!!  
What's happening!!!!!?!!!!!

Lizard: SWINE FLU!!!!!!!

Frog: Oh hush it! I don't have that, and I'm thinking it's the caffeinated air, actually XP

* * *

_Wanting, watching, debating  
On which way to run to  
Haunted, voices, craving  
Someone to run to  
I haven't lost myself in a long time  
I never tried to care when I wanted to  
I just wanna be part of something  
I just wanna be real like you  
-~~~~-_

It had all started several vorns ago.

Sunstreaker and a few others had been on a mission of some sort. He didn't remember _which_ one, he had gone on so many it was really all a blur now. And somehow he didn't think it mattered anyways.

Somewhere along the way had gotten speared through by a Decepticon, but at the time his wound hadn't appeared to be too bad. After all, the attack had missed all his major energon lines and other vital parts. Sure it was a little uncomfortable, but he had been through worse. In fact, his self-repair had all but completely healed the damage over by the time they returned to base, and he thought nothing more of it.

It wasn't until the next mission that he noticed something was off. He was traveling with the others in his alt-mode, but for some reason the longer he remained in it, the more his frame began to ache. It would subside whenever he transformed, but started right back up again the moment he was back in his alt-mode. If he waited too long it would get so bad that he would shift to bipedal mode almost out of self-preserving instinct. Sideswipe was the only one who knew, and all but begged him to go see Ratchet. Finally, after a particularly painful trip, he conceded…

_~~flashback~~_

_Sunstreaker sat perfectly still as Ratchet continued running scans, occasionally asking him to move his armor plating and grumbling to himself about something or other. Sideswipe was waiting outside, as were med-bay rules that no set of twins were allowed inside together unless one was seriously injured. It was safer for everyone that way, even if the two current sets of twins they had didn't like it much._

_The gold and black mech frowned when he noticed a strange look cross the medic's face, "What?"_

"_You say it only hurts when you're in an alt-mode, correct?" Ratchet muttered, turning to the cupboards and looking around for some tools._

"_Yeah."_

"_Then I think I've found the problem."_

"_Good."_

_Ratchet snorted, "Not just yet it's not," he turned back to Sunstreaker, and began poking around at something in his abdomen near his major frame support beam. He tapped one spot in particular, and the yellow mech lurched with a small hiss of discomfort. Ratchet shook his head._

"_Of all the places to get stabbed…Primus must not like you either…" _

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Sunstreaker glared at him._

"_This itty-bitty little box," the medic sighed, prodding said object with each word and the slightest hint of irritation, "Is your 'center'. It keeps you from becoming all tangled when transforming. No matter what a bots alt mode is changed to, it will always be found at the exact center of your form. And _yours _has been damaged. Quite severely I might add."_

"_Just hurry up and fix it," the patient muttered, not caring the least at what this little box was for or how it was affecting him._

"_I'm afraid that's not…entirely possible…" Ratchet replied, "Your self-repair already took care of that, but it appears to have made a few mistakes…"_

"WHAT!!!!!_" Ratchet couldn't help but wonder which was more disconcerting to Sunstreaker. The fact that this was a very serious matter or the fact that his systems weren't perfect._

"_Your 'center' has been shifted out of its proper location and your self-repair simply reattached it at that spot," Ratchet continued, ignoring the outburst, "It's only a slight change, but it's enough that it's completely disrupted your ability to retain an alt-mode for any extended period of time. This small change in your bipedal form can easily translate to a major one when you switch to an alt-mode, which confuses your systems and thus causing that throbbing ache you feel."_

_Sunstreaker didn't appear to be listening, but more in a stunned stupor. Ratchet decided he preferred it that way, and made sure the yellow mech was securely tied down before he began what little repairs he could on his 'center'. He knew it wouldn't be enough to fix the problem. There was simply nothing he could do now that the self-repair had already fixated the 'center' to its new position, but at least he could maybe keep the side-effects from being quite so severe and make sure it had no other excess damage._

_He didn't see much of Sunstreaker the following orns, but he _did _see the results of his handiwork. The yellow mech had been in a worse mood than usual, however that was possible, and had even lashed out at his twin. When he at last did see him face to face again, it was in a state he did not expect. The younger mech appeared almost embarrassed by his condition as Ratchet reminded him again that there was nothing else he could do._

"_So…I have a glitch then…" Sunstreaker stated darkly, hanging his head._

"_In a way I suppose it could be considered a physical glitch, yes," Ratchet nodded, trying to show some patience for the mech even though he had caused nothing but processor-aches for the medic since his diagnosis._

"_I don't believe this…" he muttered, his voice barely audible before he looked up and started yelling, "Do you have _any _idea how absolutely _shameful _this is?! You don't just _develop _physical glitches!!"_

"_I'm aware of that Sunstreaker, yes. But it is known to happen," Ratchet sighed heavily, shaking his head. It was true though. Physical glitches, glitches that affected a bot's systems only, were rarely developed later on in life than the youngling vorns. Processor glitches, glitches that affected a bot's processors and often times some of their systems as well, could be formed at any time, but it took special circumstances for a physical glitch to develop in an adult bot._

_There was a long pause and Ratchet was about to dismiss him when he spoke again, surprising Ratchet a second time, "Whatever you do…don't tell Sideswipe…"_

"_You haven't yet?" the medic frowned, a bit of worry coming to his voice._

"_I don't want him to know…Or _anyone _for that matter."_

"_Very well, as you wish," Ratchet nodded slowly._

"_You swear?" Sunstreaker looked up at him, and Ratchet received yet another surprise as he spotted the genuine look of a mech who's pride had been cut down to a humbling level._

"_Sunstreaker…" the Autobot CMO sighed tiredly, "You wouldn't actually expect me to withhold this information from Optimus Prime, would you?"_

"_He has to know?" the yellow mech winced._

_Ratchet shrugged slightly, "If he asks, I am obligated to tell him, yes."_

"_Then everyone _but _him! _Nobody _is to know about this, got it!" Sunstreaker warned, the usual, cold tone of his voice returning._

"_Fine. Fine," Ratchet waved his hands dismissively. Sunstreaker looked at him a moment, and apparently satisfied, left the room. It was the last time anyone ever saw him._

_~~end flashback~~_

He left Optimus' team without a word to anyone. Not even Sideswipe knew about it until it was too late. Sunstreaker closed their bond as completely as possible, preventing his twin from being able to locate him. He felt guilt, not as much as he would have had he been better aware of his twin's emotions, but it was there. However, he had made his decision, and was not about to go back on it.

So for a long time, he was on his own, moving from place to place, maybe slagging a 'Con or two if they were unlucky enough to cross his path. For the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to be alone, and even though he never would and never will admit it, he couldn't stand it.

Every now and again, when he was feeling particularly close to the edge, he would open his bond up with his brother, just a little. Just to feel someone familiar nearby again even though he knew his twin was far away. In some ways it only served to make him feel worse as he grew more and more aware of the pain he was causing Sideswipe, and as soon as it began to be too much to bare, he would shut the bond off abruptly and continue on his way.

He never let the thought of finding anything remotely similar to a home cross his mind, as he was convinced there was no such place. Not for a glitch, and especially not for him. He was resigned to living the rest of his life like this if he had to.

Until _they _crossed his path…

An unremarkable mech and a very tiny femme. So small in fact, he at first mistook her for a youngling. They were talking in some alleyway, and he would have ignored them if he hadn't overheard the word "glitch". After a moment of eavesdropping, he discerned that the femme was inviting the mech to come live at some ore factory in some Primus-forsaken corner of the universe where he would find several other bots that were like him.

_~~flashback~~_

"_I-I-I don't know…" the mech stuttered, looking down at his hands sheepishly. The femme gave him a small, sympathetic smile._

"_You'll be welcome there, I promise," she assured, "We've seen worse, believe me."_

_He snorted uncomfortably, "I don't see how that's possible…"_

"_Glasspike…" the femme sighed, crossing her arms, "You're glitch is not dangerous, and does not hinder your ability to function. You simply have a higher than normal core body temperature. We can probably work up some specialized coolants for you, and we even mine metals that can withstand your average heat levels," she smiled again, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side, "Besides, it's not like you have anything to loose from giving us a try."_

"_Y-yeah I guess…..But I'll still have t-to think about it…" the mech, Glasspike apparently, muttered as he slumped his shoulders._

"_Of course," the femme nodded. After a moment, Glasspike left and she was left standing there alone with her thoughts. Sunstreaker quietly stepped out of his hiding spot, and she jumped in surprise, though she didn't look particularly frightened._

"_Can I help you sir?" she asked softly, giving him a wary look._

_He opened his mouth to speak, but paused a moment before any words actually came out, "Who are you?"_

_She shifted her stance slightly and sighed, "My designation is Illusion. I am…a spokesperson of sorts. Why do you ask?"_

_Sunstreaker eyed her suspiciously, "And you have…a glitch I assume?"_

_A look of realization crossed her features, "Yes sir. It can be considered as such," she paused, "And what of yourself?"_

"_Same…"_

"_Would you…."_

"_I already heard about your little 'spot'," the yellow mech sighed._

_She merely nodded, "Are you interested then?"_

"_I don't know yet…"_

_~~end flashback~~_

So Illusion explained to him what the Glitchlings were, and how they came to be. That it was a home for the factionless and the unwanted. Personally, Sunstreaker found it all to sound a bit too idealistic, but like she had told Glasspike, he knew he would have nothing to loose for trying. Still, after he and Illusion parted ways, he remained on his own for well over a vorn before he finally couldn't take it anymore and suddenly found himself at the Glitchling's headquarters almost without realizing he was going there.

It was much bigger than he expected. Tall and built right into the cliff face, he was _almost _impressed. He approached cautiously, debating turning back with each step forward. A part of him wasn't sure which would be worse: living with the Autobots and being the only glitch, or living among strangers that supposedly had similar problems.

"Long time no see," a quiet female voice greeted as he came to stand at the entrance. His head snapped to the side to see Illusion perched atop a pile of metal sheets. She smiled welcomingly, "Well? Have you decided you'd like to give us a try?"

Sunstreaker stared silently at her a moment, "I can still leave if I feel like it, right?"

"But of course. Your free will is your own," Illusion inclined her head toward the door, "Shall we?"

He sighed, looking down in thought. This might be his last chance for awhile now to turn back and forget he ever thought of coming here. Illusion just stood patiently upon her pile, pleasantly distracted by the weaving blue and pink lines that accented her black paint.

"Might as well…" he finally muttered, a distinctly decisive tone coming to his voice. Illusion looked up at him and nodded. She leapt to the ground by his feet and made her way toward the entrance, the doors opening before her as she stepped lightly into the hallway beyond. Sunstreaker paused one last time before following her.

Several vorns later…

Sunstreaker had been _living _with the Glitchlings for some time now, as he refused to let anyone call him one. It wasn't so bad, actually. He mostly just did patrols every now and then, taking turns with Ivoryspur and Spectral, but at times would provide protection for the others when it was necessary. He rather liked being one of the only bots with anything akin to a weapon. Made it easier to get his way.

He had long since decided that it hadn't been such a bad idea to come here. He had everything he needed here. Well…almost everything. But it was more than enough for him to get by. He wouldn't call it a home but…it came pretty close.

"I have to ask…" Ivoryspur began, clicking her claws together idly as she sat slumped in one of the break room chairs where she, Sunstreaker, and anyone else that didn't have a regular job spent most of their time, "Are you still and Autobot or not?"

"Why do you care?" Sunstreaker gave her a small glare. The others present, Glasspike, Illusion and Spectral, briefly glanced up as that was the only current conversation in the room.

She shrugged, "I don't really. But you're the _only _one here that still bares any brand from their past faction."

"Maybe I still want to _be _an Autobot."

"So…are you not a Glitchling then?" Glasspike piped up, looking thoroughly confused.

"I just want to keep my options open," the yellow mech sighed heavily.

Illusion hid a smirk behind the data pad she was reading as she sat comfortably on Spectral's shoulder, "Why does that not surprise me…"

"Look, I don't claim to be a Glitchling or whatever you all call it. I'm just here because I have no where else where I can go right now."

"Doesn't that make us feel special," Ivoryspur commented dryly.

"It should."

There were times he would open his bond with his brother still. Though now it was more for Sideswipe's benefit than his own. He could still clearly sense the pain his twin felt at having been left, but refused to shame his brother by letting him know what he had become.

Not only was he a glitch, but he had all but defected from the Autobot cause. And that was something he hoped his brother would never learn until, perhaps, the war was long over. Then maybe, _maybe _he would find his brother again.

But for now he'd stay with the Glitchlings.

_-~~~~-  
Sometimes I feel like a monster  
And times I feel like a saint  
I'm on my knees  
You're my favorite disease  
And I love the way you kill me  
Love the way you heal me_

* * *

Frog: NOW I have some stuff to say XD Ok, first of all, I hope I made Sunstreaker act appropriately for his situation and I apologize if I did not. Next I would like to advise you all to _not _get too attached to Glasspike (I tried to keep his exposure to a minimum for that reason). I have WAY too many OCs in this story as it is, and so I'm going to be cutting back on a few, Glasspike being one of them. Most of them will be OCs you haven't met and won't meet either because I'll make mention of them and then toss them out (except I'm still on the fence about Sapsucker). You'll see what I mean in about three-four chapters.

I made up that part about 'centers', in case there was any confusion. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing anyways XP

And guess what!? The end is in sight!! I only have three more of these back-story chapters and then it's onto the two-part prelude!!! It's so exciting!!!!!!!!

And once again, if anyone is interested in hearing any of the songs I've used for this story, there's a link to my playlist on the bottom of our profile page. You'll also find a link to the OC list there (Well, OC list+Sunstreaker now), in case there's any basic info you'd like to see on the OCs.

Please review if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions! I'd love to hear from you ;) And thank you for reading as always. Bye!!


	8. Pinprick

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Transformers.

Genre: Friendship/humor

Warnings: Implied/mentioned use drug equivalents.

Frog: FINALLY! We're getting to the happier chapters before I fall back down into the pit of despair XD Anyways, the first part of this chapter was originally the ending for the last chapter. But it didn't really have anything to _do _with the last chapter other than to take up space, so I moved it here. As such there will also be mentions of one or two other OCs that you'll get to know better in coming chapters.

And I'd like to note that I do not condone the use of drugs in any way shape or form unless prescribed by a trained professional (which Organum is not) XP These are not humans we're dealing with, I'm pretending it can work this way for them. Just thought I'd make that clear!

And no song lyrics for this chapter. I couldn't find anything that really seemed to fit the theme. Of course, I don't listen to radio so I'm not very knowledgable about all that's out there anyways.

But yeah, basically consider this scene to have just taken place after the end of Sunstreaker's chapter.

* * *

_"Ivoryspur, Spectral, Sunstreaker; come in," _came Sniperkite's voice over the general frequency. There was only one reason their security officer would call on any of the three of them. There was some random job that needed to be done somewhere on base, and the two mechs and femme were the only bots who regularly had nothing better to do but assist in these situations. And lately, there was one situation that was occuring quite frequently.

There was a collective sigh from the three of them as Ivoryspur returned, _"We're all here. Where is she?"_

_"Quetzal has fallen down the stairs to the med-bay and if her frantic cries are any indication, has also managed to get her foot stuck in the banister. It'd probably be best for everyone if one of you went and helped her out."_

"Why do we even _have _stairs leading to the med-bay?" Ivoryspur mused aloud in exasperation, _"Why can't someone who _works _in the med-bay get her?"_

_"They have their hands full with some tests they're running. Can't tell you what exactly. Organum's in charge of it. I thought it best not to ask, so I can't tell you what's going on."_

The tall, black femme rolled her optics, _"Fine. Let Quetzal know someone's on their way."_

_"Thank you."_

"Your turn," Ivory and Spectral said in unison, both making vague hand gestures in Sunstreaker's general direction.

"Seriously? It seems like it was my turn not all that long ago," he groaned, tilting his head back.

"I'd help but, you know," Glasspike grinned, touching the corner of one of the wall monitors and allowing the metal to heat up and begin to melt under his finger before settling back to his original position, "Wouldn't want to hurt Quetzal's paint job. She does enough of that to herself."

"Don't remind me," Sunstreaker growled as he rose to his feet, "The last time I had to go help Quetzal get somewhere I found small green paint scrapings all over my arm! And they don't wash off as easily as you might think."

"Perhaps she should be assigned a designated chaperone?" Illusion suggested.

"Great idea! Are there any volunteers?" Ivory asked sarcastically before adding in a more serious tone, "I think Staticshroud's got something planned so she stays out of trouble. We just have to wait for him to implement it and hope it's better than the current system of waiting for the eternal klutz to crash and then sending someone to make sure she makes it to her destination safely."

"One can only hope," Sunstreaker snorted, "Well I guess I better get going. Someone's bound to get mad if I don't."

"Good luck," Ivoryspur waved lamely, "And let us know what my mother is up to when you get back, ok? I need to know if some form of intervention is necessary."

"Yeah sure."  
--------

Meanwhile...

Sparkler leaned against one of the med-bay tables, a look of suspicion written clearly on her features. Beside her was a slightly smaller mech with various shades of blue and grey, sitting restlessly on the table's surface, his blue optics filled with a mixture of exhaustion, worry and yet at the same time curiosity. Across the room stood Organum by some of the counters, making some precise measurements to some strange chemicals she held in her hands. The older femme made a variety of small noises, almost as though she were singing to herself as she went about her work.

Finally, Sparkler opened her mouth, "I _really _don't think this is a good idea..." she admitted for the fifth time. Organum cast a glance at her over her shoulder before going back to her calculations.

"Sparkler," she tutted, waving a finger in the air, "What have I told you about respecting the wisdom of your elders. Everything is going to work out just as I plan it."

The dusty-orange femme resisted the urge to roll her optics as their supposed patient, the aforementioned mech, sat up straight, "Question! What are the chances of the others finding out about this if...by some strange twist of....science you're wrong?"

Organum chuckled, "Pretty high, I'm thinking. Unless we can barricade you in a closet until the effect wears off, bots _will _know....In fact, they're going to have to find out anyways even when it's proven that I _am _right."

He hung his head in defeat, "They're never going to let me live this down are they..."

"Yeah, not likely..." Sparkler sighed, having already entertained the thought in her imagination but kept her mouth shut in order to spare the feelings of her favorite patient, "Don't let it bother you too much, Pinprick. There are worse things you could be teased for."'

At that moment the med-bay doors opened and Sunstreaker walked in all but dragging a spring-green and red femme behind him by the arm. She tripped with a squawk, and was allowed to fall to the floor with a clatter while her "guide" just looked on in mild disgust. Sparkler and Pinprick shared a glance before the medic straightened and sauntered over.

"Before you ask, I'm fine, and for once I'm not here to be repaired!" the new femme, a former Decepticon by the name of Quetzal, muttered quickly as she used the countertop to regain her footing.

Sparkler gave her a skeptical look, silently eyeing her scrapped and dented armor, "Somehow, I find that hard to believe..."

"I'm serious!" Quetzal huffed.

"Ok then. What _are _you here for?"

"Um, well..." she laced her fingers together nervously, "I was wondering if maybe you could teach me to do it by myself. You know, so I don't have to come down here every day..."

Sparkler paused, "I.....suppose I could do that. It'll have to wait a little though. We're kind of in the middle of something."

"Not a problem!"

Sunstreaker, who had just been about to leave the room, took a pause as Organum handed a vial of unknown liquid to Pinprick. The mech stared at the concoction nervously as Organum stepped back and Sparkler started up her medical equipment.

"Dare I ask...." the yellow mech began, recalling his second objective for coming here, "What are you all up to?"

"Just trying to fix Pinprick's insomnia problem. The poor dear," Organum cooed, "Why?"

To call Pinprick's "problem" _insomnia _was a bit of an understatement. The mech was completely incapable of entering recharge of his own accord. He would simply keep running and running until either his low energy levels forced it on him, he was hit with sedatives or he was otherwise knocked unconscious. Allowing him to just go into a slow shut down put an unhealthy strain on his systems as well as being cruel as he would often spend a great deal of time teetering on the edge of consciousness because his body no longer held the energy required to do anything else, and sedatives were too expensive and rare to be used as often as he needed.

Sunstreaker glanced at the smaller mech who was also his current roommate, and shrugged, "Ivoryspur just wanted to know."

"Oh, did she?" Organum giggled, "That one's so precious! I hope _all _of you will one day have sparklings of your own that are just as wonderful as my little Ivory is!"

A very awkward silence followed her comment, and either she didn't notice or she likely just didn't care as the younger bots all kept their mouths firmly shut.

"What's in there, anyways?" Quetzal asked curiously, leaning as far as she dared away from the secure countertop to see if she couldn't get a better look.

Pinprick opened his mouth to speak before looking pathetically at Organum, who was only too happy to answer for him, "Oh just a nice little variety of chemical things. Several different kinds of stimulants ranging in potency from the every day energon additives to some heavy duty hallucinogins as well as some depressants to combat the unwanted side-effects and one or two other things I probably shouldn't tell you about."

_"Do we get Ivoryspur or not?" _Sunstreaker questioned their medic via com-link. Sparkler just hung her head in her hands.

_"I don't know anymore. I guess at least let her know. Then if bad comes to worse we know we have back-up standing ready."_

The link was cut as Sparkler's medical programming activated and Sunstreaker opened another one with their female commander, _"What do you think of your mother giving Pinprick a special mix of illeagal drugs?"_

The silence at the other end of the link was priceless and the yellow mech tried hard not to smirk as Ivory finally managed to reply back with an uncertain and mildly irritated _"What?"_

_"And where did she get them?"_

_"I'd really rather not think about that," _there was a static burst over the link as Ivoryspur presumably slammed her head into a wall, _"I'll deal with her when she's done, but for now I think I need to go break something."_

_"Good luck with that."_

"Try to drink it all at once, if you can. It's more likely to work that way," Organum chided gently as Pinprick sipped at the chemical cocktail. He winced and did as she said, downing the rest in one gulp. There was a moment of intense silence as the last of the mixture went down his throat and they waited. Pinprick shuttered his optics a few times, the buzz of his systems growing marginally louder.

"_That-_" the young mech leaned back slightly, staring straight ahead, "Has got to be the weirdest feeling _ever_."

"Are you ok?" Quetzal asked hesitantly.

"I-I think so. It doesn't feel _bad _it just feels....different. Really _really _different..." he muttered, shaking his head but quickly finding that didn't help.

Sparkler, who had been running medical scans the entire time, reverted back to normal with an unreadable expression on her facial plating, "Well it seems to be working."

"Unsurprisingly!" Organum chimed it.

The femme medic set her jaw and continued, "Your energy levels are going up, but your sensors are being over worked. I can't see what you see without making you feel _very _uncomfortable, so is there anything in this room that you're picking up that you didn't before?"

"Um...." he glanced around, "Not...exactly. I'm just more aware of everything. It's almost like I'm seeing the world for the first time!"

"Please don't talk like that," Sunstreaker grumbled, "It's disturbing."

"Sorry."

"Is that supposed to happen?" Quetzal asked, looking mostly at Organum.

"It's not a surprising side-effect," the elder femme shrugged.

"I don't know if it's a good one, either," Sparkler muttered, crossing her arms.

"Oh nonsense! It's not hurting him and not debilitating in any way," Organum chided before turning back to Pinprick, "Now we'll continue testing this for a few orns at least and then you can decide for yourself if you want to continue. We need to figure out how often you need to take it anyways, so I'll have another few doses made up so that you'll be provided with them as needed. No one else is to touch the stuff, the chemical ratios are specifically calibrated to your current size and density."

"Uh...Yes ma'am?"

Sparkler frowned as she listened to the instructions, "What are the chances of him becoming addicted?"

"In a way, he'll be addicted I suppose. If he doesn't take it regularly he'll suffer major relapses, regardless of whether he's addicted or not. Much like someone on pain killers will feel intense pain when taken off them before they're ready, but Pinprick's condition is more permanent. It's likely his energy levels will drop faster than usual during these relapses, making him moody and the like. He can live without the medication, and will return to his usual cycle of function after recharging."

Sparkler nodded, not entirely satisfied, but it wasn't her call to make. Pinprick was old enough to decide whether or not he wanted to continue with this, and from her talks with him she knew how desperately he wanted to be at least somewhat normal and not waste precious orns of his life stuck on a berth because he was too weak to move.

"Umm, g-g-guys?" Pinprick stuttered, his entire frame beginning to shake. Sparkler drew in air sharply and her medical programming kicked in again as she hurried to his side.

"Hmm, now that's odd," Organum mused, tapping her chin as she started sorting through the mess of stuff she had been using on the counter. Sunstreaker decided now would be a good time to get out of there, and vanished as Quetzal watched helplessly and Pinprick's shaking grew increasingly worse.

"We're going to have to try to get the chemicals out of you," Sparkler stated monotonously, grabbing some tools in a drawyer. Pinprick looked like he wanted to object, but couldn't as she grabbed a particularly unsettling-looking device used to pump a bot's tanks. By now the grey and blue mech was begin to spark and curls of smoke were coming from his processors.

"Hold it! I have discovered the problem!" Organum announced, still quite proud of herself as she quickly closed the space between herself and Pinprick. She pried the young mech's mouth open a poured the last drop that had been sitting in the bottom of one of the vials down his throat. The violent shuddering continued a moment longer before all at once it stopped. Another large plume of smoke sifted out the back of his helm as he toppled forward with a groan.

"Is he ok?!?!" Quetzal shrieked, biting on one of her digits.

"No permanent damage. Commencing repair now," Sparkler confirmed with a curt nod as she forced him to lay down on the table. Pinprick obliged without complaint.

"I'll have to be sure not to make that mistake again..." Organum chuckled good naturedly. They heard a small static buzz as Sparkler abruptly switched back to normal with a glare.

"You had slaggin' better make sure!!!"

"So we're continuing with the treatment then?" the older femme asked, tilting her head to the side with a knowing smile. Sparkler huffed and went back to work.

"It is the patient's decision, but I do not recomend it," she finally muttered after running another scan over his systems.

"Well Pinprick?"

"I....." he frowned in thought, shutting down his optics, "We can try it for a little while at least....But maybe you could tone down the potency a smidge?"

"I'll see what I can do," Organum nodded, the grin never leaving her features, "Well if that's all, I suppose I'm off. Come see me the moment you think the effects are wearing off and I'll make sure I have another dose waiting for you."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

Frog: Sorry if not everyone is as amused by this as I am. I know drugs are no joking matter, but these are alien robots, ok? Not humans so it's a little bit different for them. Also, you'll get to know more about Quetzal in another chapter or two.

A few notes I need to make. One is that at the moment, Sparkler and Pinprick's relationship is more of an overprotective sister and her younger brother. I've considered pairing them together, but for now it's still up in the air because I don't want to complicate the story too much. And you can blame Lizard for that last part. It was all _her _idea XD

A small change to what I said last chapter too, there's actually one other character intro. chapter coming up that I forgot about. The reason I forgot is because Lizard is the one writing it. You all love Lizard don't you? Writes some awesome stories? If you haven't read them yet, go do so now before I throw a shoe at your head!! Anyways I'll try to hurry posting these last chapters so we can get up to the actual fanfic ;)

As usual, all questions, comments and suggestions are welcome whether in a review or a PM if you prefer. And thanks for reading!! Bye!


	9. The Box

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Transformers.

Genre: Humor/Family

Frog: No song this chapter either. But at least I got it up quick!! XD I've had this chapter planned for a really long time, but there were just _SOOO_ many other characters that had to be introduced first I had to wait until now to actually write it! But yeah, this is one of my favorite characters. I'm not telling you why yet, don't want to spoil any of the surprise ;)

And despite the fact that it may not look important, the events of this chapter will be mentioned later in the upcoming fanfic. Ok, so it's still not very important, but whatever! I LOVE it anyways XD

* * *

"Hmmmm, now what have we here?" Braimond mused aloud to the young mech standing next to him. Pinprick shrugged.

"Don't know. It came in not too long ago," he rapped lightly on the metal box the two of them were currently inspecting, "I wasn't sure I should open it. It was addressed specifically to Staticshroud so..."

"Is he expecting it?"

"I just contacted him a moment ago, and I don't think he was."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough," came the reply as they both looked up to see their leader and his two chief officers, Ivoryspur and Volary, headed their way.

"A present for me?" Staticshroud joked.

"So it seems," Braimond glanced warily down at the parcel.

Volary paced around the box once and frowned, "Where's it from?"

"We don't know. It pretty much just showed up on our front doorstep," Pinprick sighed, a hint of amusement dancing in his optics at the idea of this being a mystery box.

"So you brought it inside?" Ivoryspur gave him a small glare. The small mech held his hands up defensively.

"Well...it seemed like a good idea at the time... What if a monster got it?!"

"The box is thick enough I don't think that would have been a problem."

"But what if the contents are fragile!"

"Is there a label that says it's fragile?" Pinprick shook his head dejectedly, "No? Well then I'm assuming it would have been fine."

The gray and blue mech shuffled his feet and glanced at the package with obvious curiosity, "We're still gonna open it, right?"

"I would assume so," Volary nodded, glancing at Staticshroud for confirmation.

"We should call Sparkler and have her scan it first. It might be dangerous," Ivory argued.

"No need," Staticshroud ran a very simple scan of his own and nudged the box with his foot, "It's not as heavy as it looks. I don't think there's any need to be overly cautious. Single object inside. Roundish. Warm."

Volary took a step closer, investigating one of the locks, "You think it might be alive?"

The older mech just shrugged, "Possibly. If it is, it's most likely just a drone."

"Which means it could still be a threat," Ivoryspur muttered, shaking her head.

"I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle, Ivory," Staticshroud assured with a small smile, "But if it makes you feel better, I've already contacted Sniperkite and Sunstreaker. If whatever it is attacks, we'll be more than ready and you probably won't have to fight at all."

"That's not what I was worried about..." the femme mumbled begrudgingly. Staticshroud and Volary shared a vaguely amused glance.

"What appears to be the problem?" Sniperkite asked as he came up to them at a jogging pace. Sunstreaker was lingering somewhere behind him looking like he had come out of recharge not that long ago.

"A box," Volary grinned, tapping the metal container.

Ivoryspur rolled her optics, "We're worried that what's inside might be dangerous," she clarified.

"Ah..." Sniperkite rubbed his nasal plating in thought.

"You both have permission to shoot if you deem it necessary," Staticshroud instructed as Sunstreaker finally joined them.

"Yes sir," the older of the two mechs nodded while the yellow one just let out a barely audible sigh and readied his weapon.

"Question! How do we open it, we don't have the..." Pinprick's observation broke out into a startled squeak as Ivoryspur rolled her optics and slashed her claws through the locks along the top of the box. Once the latches were all taken care of she simply plunged the jagged appendages into the lid and lifted it up and away so that it could fall to the ground with the loud clamor of metal clattering on the cold floor. Everyone peered into the box as best they could, trying to get a view of its contents.

It was a metallic ball, from what their optical sensors could tell. Mostly gray except for some uneven splotches of light blue paint and no other remarkable features. A few of the bots gathered around looked at one another, silently asking if they should touch it or not. Pinprick dared to take a step closer, resting his hands on the box's side as he watched the orb with fascination.

_-click-_

The ball buzzed and unfurled before any one of the nearby bots could react and launched itself at the grey and blue mech's face. Pinprick squawked, staggering backwards and the unmistakable sound of a rifle-shot was heard as Sunstreaker discharged his weapon. Unfortunately in the smaller mech's desperate attempts to pry the thing off before it....did whatever it was intending to do to his face, the shot missed its mark and instead went straight through Pinprick's cheek plating. He yelled again in agony, falling back on his skid plate as the "thing" curled back up into a ball and rolled harmlessly down to his lap and onto the floor.

"What the..." Staticshroud knelt down by the young mech's side and manuvered the object into the palm of his hand.

"You ok?" Volary asked worriedly, pulling Pinprick back up to his feet as the smaller mech pressed a hand firmly to his face, attempting in vain to stop the energon leaking from the wound.

_"I think you broke my jaw!" _he complained over the general frequency, finding he was unable to speak.

"Would you have rathered I just let it dismember the rest of your face?" Sunstreaker snorted vocally with a glare.

"Did it hurt you?" Sniperkite questioned, glancing nervously between Pinprick and Staticshroud as their leader continued to investigate the ball closely.

_"No. It just _licked _me!!" _the grey and blue mech reached his other hand up to wipe at the rest of his face vigorously.

Staticshroud gave him an amused look, "What did it look like when it opened up? Did anyone see?"

An awkward silence followed as the younger bots all averted their optics. Braimond, however, took a step forward, "Like a small Cybertronian."

"I thought so..."

"Wait," Volary didn't bother trying to hide the shock from his tone or his expression, "Are you saying it's a _sparkling_?!"

"More likely a youngling. It's certainly big enough," Staticshroud chuckled, rolling the ball back and forth between his hands. After a moment they could all hear what sounded like quiet giggling floating up from somewhere within the ball's core. A little more prompting on Staticshroud's part and it uncurled once more, this time much more slowly, into an absolutely delighted little bot with large, brilliant blue optics and a paint job he had likely done himself.

There was a stunned silence for a moment save for the younglings happy giggles as Staticshroud gently caressed the top of his little head before Volary managed to blurt out, "Someone purposely packed a _youngling _in a _box_?!!!?!"

"That's what it looks like," Ivoryspur commented, just as dumbstruck as the rest of them, "My mother is going to throw a _fit_."

"I'm sure this is illeagal...somewhere," Sniperkite mused, investigating the electronic tag that had come with the box more closely to see if it yielded any clues. Unfortnuately, there were none to be found.

"Why would anyone send it here? _We _don't want it," Sunstreaker shook his head. Staticshroud just glanced at them all with obvious amusment.

"Perhaps you young bots don't, but I actually find this little one to be quite endearing."

_"It didn't attack you, that's why,"_Pinprick gave his attacker a glare to which the youngling responded with a cheeky grin.

"Still, Sunstreaker has a point. Why ship the youngling _here_? This is a mining company, not a daycar," Braimond crossed its arms as it watched the little Cybertronian with an unreadable expression.

Sniperkite posed himself very similary to the supposed "souless" mech next to him as he looked down in thought, "It's possible the sender knows about our other "operation". Maybe there's something wrong with him?"

Staticshroud nodded, and turned back to the youngling that had begun busying itself with trying to gnaw on his finger, "Do you have a name, little one?"

The youngling stared at him a moment before slowly removing its mouth to speak, "Grumpy bots calls me a Spaz!!" he answered proudly.

"Why does that not surprise me..." Ivoryspur cast a smirk Pinprick's way, "You should really have that looked at."

"I've already contacted Sparkler. She should probably take a look at...little Spaz as well," Sniperkite reported.

"So... are we keeping him, then?" Volary asked, still looking bewildered by the idea of shipping a youngling anywhere in such a matter as had been done.

"I don't see why we can't," their leader nodded and turned back to the little bundle in his hands, "Would you like to stay here?"

Spaz looked around himself at the other bots and the production floor beyond them with wide, curious optics. The bright, shimmering blue orbs somehow managed to grow larger still as he spotted something that particularly interested him. He promptly leapt from Staticshroud's hands, galloping full speed toward whatever had caught his attention and shrieking something that sounded like "DUST BALLLL!!!!" though no one could quite be sure. Spaz jumped into the air, snapping his gaping mouth shut as he reached the pinicle of his little hop and tumbled to the floor and onto his back.

It was at that moment Sparkler just so happened to arrive, stopping dead in her tracks as she watched the event unfold a few feet away from her. Spaz saw her and tilted his head to the side with a smile before quickly clambering over to tug on her ankle.

"I's cock da dusht ball," he explained as he jabbed his digits into his mouth in an attempt to point it out to her.

Sparkler looked at the youngling, then up at the others, then down at the youngling again, "When did we......PINPRICK what happened to your face!!!!"

"Sunstreaker shot him," Ivoryspur explained, trying to hide a smirk as Pinprick gave the overprotective medic a sheepish smile.

"WHAT?!?!"

"He was being attacked! I just....missed," Sunstreaker yelled back.

"The youngling jumped on his head," Ivory added.

"You're not helping!" the yellow mech hissed as Sparkler just stared that them all incredulously.

"So let me get this straight...The youngling _'attacked' _Pinprick's face. You _shot _at the youngling, that was on his face, and you missed and it hit him instead..." the medic shook her head stiffly, "Do you _not _see that's there's something seriously wrong with that picture?"

"In my defence, I didn't know it was a youngling yet," Sunstreaker tried to reason.

"That doesn't matter! You still don't shoot toward someone's head! EVER!!"

"I've done it before. It's no big deal," he shrugged.

"It is if you hit someone you're not supposed..." Sparkler broke off abruptly, her head snapping back to little Spaz as he tapped on her shin plating.

He stared at her a moment once he had her attention before simply saying, "You're orange."

Sparkler visibly bit back a sarcastic remark, and knelt down so she was closer to the youngling's level, "Do you know where your creators are?"

"Creators?" he repeated, looking thouroughly confused.

Staticshroud stepped up next to them, "What she's asking is, do you remember who takes care of you?"

"Oooooh..." Spaz looked up at the two adults and smiled again, "Everyone always says that _'Notme' _is s'pose to do it!" he frowned suddenly, "But...I don't know who 'Notme' is...Are they here?"

Staticshroud gently lifted the youngling up in his hands once more, "I'm afraid not. But...'Notme' told us that we're going to be taking care of you now, alright?" he cast a warning look at some of the others.

"Mmmmkay," Spaz quipped happily, "When's lunch?"

Sparkler ran a quick scan over his systems, "He looks healthy, just a little low on energy. I'll give him a full check-up once I get Pinprick patched up," she muttered, grabbing said mech's arm and leading him toward the med bay, but not before pointing threateningly at Sunstreaker's nose, "This isn't over."

The yellow mech shoved her hand away with a glare, and the dusty-orange femme left, her patient following behind obediently. Braimond began investigating the box, trying to figure out how it was going to be salvaged and Volary moved to stand next to Ivoryspur.

"He's _low _on energy?" he asked quietly, watching as Spaz bounced up and down in Staticshroud's hands while the mech took him away to be fed.

The tall black femme just sighed heavily, and Sunstreaker shook his head, "I hate younglings."

"I might start to share you sentiment," Ivoryspur mumbled, "Something tells me we're in for it this time."

Volary smirked, taking a precautionary step away from his younglinghood friend, "Well look on the bright side! At least dealing with this youngling will be good practice!"

Ivoryspur's gaze slowly shifted over to him, her voice deathly calm though her optics pierced straight through his armor, "You had better not be implying what I think you are, Volary."

"I'm sure your mother would agree," he continued, taking another none-so-subtle step back.

"Volary..."

"In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Organum assigned you to sparkling-sit him for that very purpose!"

Ivoryspur sighed heavily, "Three..."

"Isn't that supposed to be your cue to run?" Sunstreaker asked dryly.

"Yes, but...it wouldn't exactly do me any good. She's faster than I am," Volary sighed.

"Two..."

"So you have a death wish then?"

"I might."

"One..."

Sniperkite stifled a chuckle, "I'll stick around to help find your parts when she's done."

"Thanks I appreciate it!"

Ivoryspur's glassy battle mask slid over her facial plating with an audible _click _as Volary braced himself for his fate.

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Frog: So yeah, I absolutely **_adore _**children characters XD I didn't have as much of Spaz as I would have liked in this chapter, but he's going to be playing such an important role in "The Countdown Begins" that it's ok ;) The whole thing between Volary and Ivoryspur at the end was a last minute thing, but I thought it was a good end to the chapter. Don't worry too much about Volary though, as Ivory doesn't actually have to enact her battle programming to dismember him so he'll be fine!

Anyways, Spaz is actually much more complex than he appears, but I couldn't fit in everything that's going on with him in this one, so you'll get to learn more about him in TCB and I'll have some general info in his bio, as always.

Hopefully you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it! I know a lot happened and at the same time, not much at all. I have another chapter up too (hopefully you read this one first). Quetzal! You remember her from last chapter right? And Spaz is in that one too.

As always, please review if you have anything you'd like to say, and thanks again to the nine or so of you that have been reading this up to this point XD It's reasuring to know that I have an audience, however small ;) And I wish I could give you all a big hug!!

Yeah, Spaz pretty much put me in a good mood today XD Bye!!


	10. Quetzal

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Transformers or the song "Better Hands Now" by Natalie Grant.

Genre: Family/Friendship

Frog: Yay for posting two chapters in one day!!! XD I've had this one written out for awhile now, but had to wait to post some others first. Just a sweet, fluffy little chapter about her. There are two other new characters, Icefog and Fidget, and I considered giving their own chapter as well, but their backstory is pretty short and closely tied in with a sub-plot that I may or may not use in the upcoming fic. So I decided to just leave it out and you can learn the gist of it in the "Notes" section of their bios (link at the bottom of our profile).

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_It's hard to stand on shifting sands  
It's hard to shine in the shadows of the night  
You can't be free if ou don't reach for help  
And you can't love if you don't love yourself  
But there is hope when my faith runs out...  
I'm in better hands now  
-~~~~-_

Quetzal muttered bitterly to herself as she fumbled through a drawer of personal belongings. Naturally she had never thought to organize it. Not until it was too late anyways. Foresight had never been one of her strong points, among dozens of other things.

Finally she found a small bottle of spring green paint and sighed with relief. After nearly tripping over something on the floor she made it over to her berth and sat down; picking up a few tools so that she could repair the little dents and scratches she had collected throughout the day.

Now perhaps to an outsider it may look like the marks of your average sparring match, which in a way it was. The match was Quetzal versus the walls, furniture, and gravity itself, along with anything else that just so happened to be in her path. To say Quetzal had never been one of the most graceful bots was an understatement.

She sighed quietly to herself as she finished the worst of the marks along her hip and grabbed a smaller bottle of red paint for the scrape across her chassis. It was difficult being a klutz. Especially when there was nothing she could do to fix it. The hallways of the Glitchling's base were narrow and the rooms were often cluttered with supplies. It was a hazardous place for someone with permanently off-kilter balance to work, let alone live.

Quetzal was a former Decepticon scout. Still fairly young and inexperienced, having been created during the war and raised in the Decepticon equivalent of an orphanage. No one had ever expected her to become much of anything as she had no discernable talents, and she had never exactly aimed very high in the first place. She just wanted to stay online.

Unfortunately, that had become a problem several vorns ago not long after she had reached maturity. The young femme had suffered a major accident, or so she had been told. The memories had been lost to her in the process, but according to what they had told her, she had sustained a severe injury to the back of her helm. The resulting injury had put her balance sensors in disarray, making it nearly impossible for her to walk straight from that moment on.

As such she wasn't exactly good for much anymore. Not that she ever had been, but just the same she was reassigned to be a decoy as someone of the higher ups had decided a small Decepticon femme that walked around like she was overcharged had to be good for something. For a long time, Quetzal didn't complain, and told herself that she should be happy they had hadn't just offlined her. And while she had a tendency to be on the oblivious side, she knew her time was short.

It had been pure dumb luck that the Glitchlings had discovered her and taken her in. She could never thank them enough for that, even if she was just as useless as she had ever been.

Staticshroud had tried, she would give him that much. He had found her a desk job. It wasn't really necessary for their group to run properly, but it did give her something to do and was more efficient than leaving their base without it. Basically it was just her job to know where everyone was at any given time, using a few monitors and a stationary position where she was easily found. It wasn't hard, but she was thankful for the opportunity to do something helpful, however small it was.

You see, Quetzal had very few things going for her. In addition to her inability to walk a hallway without running into something or navigate down a staircase, she was also a tad emotionally unstable. Comes from being born a Decepticon she supposed; Spectral and Deathspeak had similar problems and she suspected that Volary did as well though he did a good job of hiding it. Couple that with her general immaturity and irrational fear of Autobots and her pros and cons were mostly one-sided.

The others tried to accept her, knowing that in many ways they weren't so different, but some of the Glitchlings had a hard time of it. She had managed to crash into every bot at least three times, even the ones she rarely saw. It had come to the point where Sparkler had once hinted that her legs could be amputated if that would make things easier. She wasn't too fond of that idea though…

Sometimes, Quetzal wondered why she was here at all. Sure it was better than the Decepticons, where she was even more useless, but she still wasn't fully accepted by the majority of them. She tried to keep a smile for everyone, pretend it didn't bother her that she knew they talked behind her back, but sometimes it was hard. And it tore her up inside that there was no one who quite understood.

But then again, maybe she had something better than that….

The door to her room opened, and she briefly glanced up to see a youngling with pastel green and yellow paint. He smiled shyly at her and she smiled back, setting her things aside for the night as he came in.

"Hey Fidget," she greeted with a wave, "Enjoy your day with Sapsucker and them in the mines?"

He smiled and nodded as she helped him onto the berth, "I thought it'd be scary, but they're really nice! And it's not as dark down there as I thought it'd be."

Quetzal giggled, and stroked the top of the youngling's head affectionately, "Glad to hear it!"

Fidget was one of two younglings that the Glitchlings had under their care. He was fairly small, not quite coming up to Quetzal's knee joint and she wasn't exactly an Amazon among femmes either. He had a crudely made metal patch over his right optic due to the fact they didn't have the materials to repair the delicate sensor properly. According to Icefog, the nursery bot that he had joined with, he was created prematurely, resulting in his processor not being fully connected. It wasn't actually as bad as it sounded, the youngling was just, well...twitchy.

Neither youngling had one specific caregiver. They would spend their day with whoever was available, and Icefog was naturally their personal medic as well as the overseer of anyone that took care of them that day. However the evenings were a completely different issue. In Icefog's mind, the younglings had to have consistency in regards to where they recharged, as they needed to feel safe wherever it was they laid their heads at night. Quetzal had no idea how it wound up being her room, but it had! And slag Primus if she wasn't thankful for it.

Fidget leaned against her tiredly, her touch lulling him closer to recharge. After a moment, she gently moved him to the pillow and tucked him in, continuing to rub the youngling's plating soothingly as he snuggled under the blanket. He was almost out when they heard a small voice whining loudly outside, followed by the door opening.

"Noooooooo! I'm wide awake! No recharge!!!!" whined the even smaller youngling, Spaz, as he struggled in Icefog's hand. The powder-blue femme just gave him a look and Quetzal giggled.

"Spazzy," she called sweetly, tilting her head at him. The small, somewhat roundish-looking youngling's bright blue optics lit up and he squealed with delight.

"Quetzal!!!!" he cheered, reaching toward the green and red femme as though he hadn't seen her in ages. Icefog set him on the ground. He bolted over to her leg the moment his feet touched the floor, and hugged her ankle tightly as he peered up at her, "I got more paint! See? See?"

Icefog snorted in the doorway, indicating that she was going to leave. Quetzal sent her a thankful look, and the older femme's gaze softened before the door closed and she was gone. Quetzal could never express how truly grateful she was to have the former nursery-bot around. Icefog had taught her so much, and some of the others considered her to be the grouchy femme's apprentice in the care of sparklings and younglings.

"Is that some white paint I see on your arm?" Quetzal asked playfully, returning her attention to the speckled youngling on her foot.

"Yeah! And I did it _all by myself_!!!" he chirped as he practically glowed with pride. She chuckled, leaning over to pull him up onto her lap.

"You did a good job," she smiled as she mused over his arm, silently wondering who the paint belonged to, but knowing it was probably better not to ask, "Are you ready for recharge?"

"No!" he huffed, crossing his arms, "Not without a story!"

"A story you say?" she shifted so that she faced where Fidget was hiding under the covers, "Well ok, but you have to promise you'll recharge as soon as the story's finished, got it?"

He responded by laughing with delight, and dove for the blankets covering Fidget. The taller youngling yelped in protest as they were ripped from his hands and tossed up in the air, only to land on Spaz's head. Giggles drifted from under the blanket as the lump in its center trembled with delight. Fidget glared, and Quetzal tried hard not to laugh at his expense. She lifted up the corner of the blanket to peek at Spaz, and carefully slid her hand in to pull him back out. Had she been just about anyone else, he probably would have bitten her, but instead he nuzzled her hand and allowed her to urge him out onto the pillow.

Once he was settled by Fidget's side, she tucked them in again, and laid on her side next to them, propping herself up on her elbow as she thought up a story. Fidget began to settle down again, pulling the edge of the blanket up over his cheek while Spaz watched her in anticipation.

"Hmmm…..What story have you guys not heard in a long time?" she asked, reaching over to a monitor on the wall and dimming the lights to a relaxing glow.

"Ummm…" Spaz tapped his little chin in thought.

"It has to have a happy ending," Fidget piped up suddenly, his voice muffled by the blanket.

"Ok, stories with a happy ending…anything else?"

"Clouds!!" Spaz chimed in.

"Can they be purple clouds?" Fidget asked, coming out of his little cocoon.

"I don't see why not."

"And Flail should be in it! 'Cause Flail's funny," Spaz chirped.

Quetzal giggled, "Sounds like a good story. Alright, lets see…."

And so she told them a story about Flail and the purple clouds. Along the way other things were added such as a castle and a moon, a couple dozen rocks, and they even tossed a few more of their friends in for good measure. And it had a _very _happy ending.

By the time the story was done, both younglings could barely keep their optics on. Quetzal smiled softly, feeling the exhaustion from the day as well, and turned the lights off completely. She pulled Spaz and Fidget close, curling her body around them as they cuddled comfortably against her chassis. She watched them closely a moment longer as they slid into a contented recharge, a warmth in her spark that caused all her other troubles fall away.

She may not be very useful or even very important.

But she was good enough for them.

* * *

Frog: I LOVE writing children characters, they're so much fun!!!!! XD Especially now that I've been taken ECE classes I've been getting lots of ideas, some of which I'll be implementing in "The Countdown Begins" (for those of you that don't know, that's the fic all this has been leading up to ;)

Anyways, if all goes as planned, next chapter _should _be written by Lizard so that I can focus more on getting the Preludes done *gives her sister a pointed look*. Can't really tell you what to expect though. Ah well, at least we're _close _to the end XD

As always, reviews and or questions and comments are always appreciated ;) Thanks for reading! Bye!!


	11. Jadelock and Flail

Disclaimer: We own nothing from Transformers. Frog owns Canto and Lizard owns Jadelock and Flail.

Genre: Humor/Family

Frog: So _FINALLY _Lizard got up and wrote this chapter for her two remaining OCs. Now I suppose I should tell you that in order to get Lizard to do this before Christmas vacation ended (which is tomorrow) I had to bargain with Glasspike's life (you may or may not remember him from Sunstreaker's chapter), so he's not going to be dieing anymore.

Lizard: Hallelujiah! And besides, he's your true love!! And the delay...yeah, it's not like I have any other stories of anything that I've been trying to write...*eye roll*

Frog: And yet you've updated your stories at least twice in the time it's taken for you to write this.

Lizard: Whatever. Anyways...this chapter is about siblings Jadelock and Flail. They're...siblings. Very much so. You'll see what I mean.

* * *

_**CLANG!**_

"_Flail!!_"

"I'm _sorry_! I don't do it on purpose!"

The green and white femme scowled and rubbed the back of her helm. Next to her, an orange and white mech waved his arms in emphasis as he defended himself against her initial shout.

"Maybe you shouldn't sit so close," she growled, sliding away.

"Jadelock!" flail whined.

"You nearly took off my head!"

"I can't he-oof!"

His defense was cut off when his own leg flew up and nearly connected with his faceplates, knocking him over. There was a pause as Jadelock leaned forward to see her brother over the rock he _had_ been sitting on.

"…Maybe you're right."

Jadelock vented and gave him a sympathetic look before pushing herself to her feet and walking over. She stood over him, and crossed her arms.

"If I help you up are you going to hit me?" she asked, as though she was speaking to a sparkling.

He glared up at her, "I don't do it on purpose," he repeated, but accepted the proffered hand.

Jadelock pulled him to his feet without incident and turned to look out into the sky, taking a moment to get her bearings. Her brother rubbed the back of his helm, a scowl plastered on his faceplates. He didn't always have so much trouble, and she felt sorry that she was putting him through so much stress, but this might be their last chance at _living_.

"We should get going. That femme said they would be expecting us, and we don't want anyone worrying that something happened," she started off towards their small, two bot vessel.

Flail snorted, "Yeah, she also said they'd 'accept' us there, and we both know how likely _that_ is. Not to mention who would worry about a couple of glitches?"

His sister turned a pair of almost hurt optics to him, "Give it a chance, Flail, this might work out," she nearly pleaded.

He just snorted again and shook his head, continuing towards their ship. The femme cycled her vents and trotted after him, climbing into the slightly cramped cockpit next to him. Without a word, Flail started the ship and gripped the controls a bit tighter than necessary, lifting it off the ground. Jadelock glanced at him subtly and vented again at his tense, irate expression.

"What?" He suddenly snapped.

"Huh?" she turned to face him in confusion.

He cast a glance in her direction, preoccupied with maneuvering through the asteroid field they had stopped in, "You were staring at me."

"I was not!" she protested, "I barely glanced at you."

"Well don't."

"Why is it hurting you?" she sneered, not caring that they were being childish.

"No, it's annoying."

"I just _glanced_ at you!"

"Stop touching me!"

"WHAT?! I'm not-"

"You keep poking me!" he snapped, getting rather riled.

"For emphasis, slaghead!"

"STOP IT!!!"

…

"I said stop."

"I did stop."

"No, you're just sitting there holding your servo like right next to my arm."

"What, now I can't touch your air?"

"No! You can't!"

Any immature response Jadelock may have had to that was stopped when Flail's arm lurched awkwardly to the side, dragging the control stick with it. He yelped, half in pain at the way his arm moved, and half in response to the violent swerving of the ship that resulted. Jadelock froze, body completely rigid, optics wide while her brother scrambled to recover and jerked the ship back on course. There was a moment of silence, which the guilty party soon broke.

"Ehm…oops?" he turned sheepishly to his sister.

Jadelock didn't answer, she just stared dead ahead with wide optics, completely stiff. Flail leaned forward to see her faceplates and raised an optic ridge suspiciously.

"….Are you locked up?" she didn't respond besides a stuttering attempt at revving her engine, "You are!" he almost said as an accusation, "I'm leaving you like that."

Her engine sputtered and one arm gave a tiny twitch. He snickered at her distress, only to yelp when his comm. switched on.

'_You are deactivated, soooooo deactivated. I'm going to disassemble you piece by piece, then reformat you into a waste reciptical and then throw you off a cliff so you break on the rocks and then put you back together and beat you with a-'_

"Ok, ok! Tch, here," he reached over behind her neck and fiddled with a wire for a moment.

Jadelock's body relaxed considerably and she turned to glare at him. He snickered, only to find his leg doing the can-can of its own accord….

After the smoke cleared from that episode (literally) the siblings sat in tense silence. Flail shot Jadelock a nervous look and cycled his vents loudly.

"It's gonna be a long flight isn't it?"

"No…duh."

The brother and sister walked nervously up to the enormous complex's door. Flail hesitated at the threshold, but his sister grabbed his arm and tugged him the rest of the way inside. A mining facility, or so it called itself. A desk at the other end of the room was manned by a plain silver mech who looked up at them and gave them a small, shy smile. Jadelock dragged her brother up to the desk and returned the smile pleasantly.

"How can I help you?" the mech asked politely.

"Well, we-"

_**Clang!!**_

"Sorry!"

Jadelock glared murderously at her Flail and rubbed her shoulder before turning back to the other mech. He was wide-opticed and seemed to be trying to figure out why the orange and white mech had just smacked his femme companion and deciding whether or not he should call security.

"Forgive my brother; he sometimes struggles to contain himself," Flail snorted at that, "Anyways we're here for a…job interview?"

The mech continued to stare for a moment before realization dawned on his faceplates, "Oh, you must be…" he tapped something into the computer in front of him, "Jadelock and Flail. Illusion said we should expect you," he looked back up from the screen, "I'll get someone to take you to see our boss."

With that he grinned at them and stood up, walking into a room behind the desk area. The siblings shared a bemused glance but waited patiently, until the silver mech returned, this time with a grey a blue mech in tow.

"This is Pinprick, he'll take you to see Staticshroud, and then he would love to give you a 'grand tour,'" the silver mech explained.

Pinprick grinned broadly at them, "Hi! Come on, this way!"

There was no time to protest as the bizarrely chipper young mech led them briskly down one of the corridors. No turning back now.

* * *

"I don't think they like me."

Jadelock gave her brother a sympathetic nudge through their bond, "They'll warm up to you eventually. The…flailing is just kind of off-putting at first. But they'll get over it."

Flail moaned from where he was sprawled out on his bunk, directly above Jadelock's. A room divider separated them from the small section that was Illusion's, who had graciously allowed the brother and sister to share her quarters.

"I don't mean to! It's just so…stressful," he complained, obviously miserable.

She smiled slightly, "I know. Did you know there's a mech here whose limbs fall off? And another who can't stop repeating himself over and over until someone smacks him? Oh, and one of the femmes can't walk straight to save her life," Flail snorted, obviously not comforted, "Look, if it makes you feel any better I _did_ lock up twice in front of total strangers and fall on my faceplates."

"I kicked, smacked, elbowed, and body slammed total strangers."

"Okay…I got nothing."

His systems whirred in vague annoyance and he rolled over, or would have if his arm hadn't decided it wanted to go sky-diving off his berth.

"Waaah!!"

_**CRASH!!!**_

"Slaggit!"

Jadelook looked at him in mild surprise, somehow avoiding locking up, though she supposed that was because really, she had expected it to happen, "Want to trade bunks?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

They both were startled at the sound of the door to their quarters whooshing open. Jadelock looked up and walked over to greet their visitor, stepping over her brother where he lay in a tangled mass of limbs on the floor. A dark green and black figure poked his head in curiously, looking in some concern at the fallen mech.

"Is everything alright in here? I heard a sound that was most queer," the mech trilled.

Jadelock jerked back a moment, "Ah, um, yes. That was my brother…falling."

The mech frowned but nodded, "I understand what you say, but are you sure he is okay?"

_'Creepy much?'_

Jadelock didn't answer her brother, just continued to watch the chipper mech, "Flail? No, no he's not, but that's normal."

Their guest chuckled slightly at that then straightened up and looked directly at her, "Glad to know that all is fine, Canto is the name that's mine!"

The femme took a moment to process exactly what he was saying, but managed to recover, "Ah…nice to meet you Canto, this is my brother Flail, and I'm Jadelock."

She flashed him a slightly hesitant smile which he returned with sincerity and gusto, "Pleased to meet you good sir and ma'am, but I'm thinking now it's time to scram!"

He waved happily and turned around to trot away. After he left, there was a moment of awkward silence in the room, broken only by the clicks and scrapes of Flail's efforts to untangle. Finally he managed to wrench his leg out of the final twist and sat up, looking over at his sister in amusement.

"Well, he was…flamboyant."

Jadelock's faceplates slowly split into a grin as she ducked her head and chuckled softly, "I think we'll like it here just fine."

Her brother laughed, "I guess it's worth a shot."

"Who knows, we might like it a lot!"

Flail froze and gave her an incredulous look, but she only smiled back innocently. He shook his head rapidly.

"Don't do that."

* * *

Lizard: *grin* I like writing Canto. Tis fun.

Frog: I know, it's a shame he won't be playing a bigger part in the fic (as of yet). In case you can't tell, Canto has an annoying tendency to rhyme everything he says. No one really knows if it's a glitch or if he's just....weird....XD

Well, it shouldn't be too long until the next chapter. Sometime this coming week hopefully. And OH MY STARS we're finally done with the character intros XD Time to begin the two-part prequel and then we can at long last get to "The Countdown Begins"!!

Reviews and comments are always appreciated, and be sure to give Lizard a pat on the back for finally getting this done XD Thanks for reading! Bye!!

LIZARD OUT


	12. Prelude Act 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Transformers and neither do I own the song "Those Who Wait" by Fireflight.

Genre: Drama/Tragedy/Friendship/Family

Frog: *starts singing* Happy birthday to me! I'm turning twenty! Been at this for days so you all can see!

Yep! I'm giving you all a present in honor of my birthday...sort of XD A gargantuan update!!!! With a plot!!!!

This is easily the _single_ longest thing I've EVER written! Seriously, the longest chapter I've every done is at the most 5000 words, but this, _this _is over 8000 XP Ah well, I couldn't really split it up, so...hopefully you've all got the attention span to read this!

So a few notes, one there are going to be a few OCs in this chapter that you haven't met, and as I told you before, they aren't sticking around. Their names are Ufo (Oo-foe, it's a long story XD), Sliver and Weave. Also, as was my deal with Lizard, Glasspike _will _be living onto be in the fic, so I gave him a bigger part in this chapter so that you can get to know him a little better ;)

I have to admit, some parts of this were difficult to write, and I'm still not sure everything worked (my sister can be _sooo _unbelievably helpful sometimes XP) So I apologize for anything that may not flow quite so well. And while it's supposed to be a very dramatic chapter, I can't write something this long without at least trying to lighten the mood in a few places before the end, so I'm also sorry if those parts don't fit.

_italics_--com. link

* * *

Another day another waiting game  
A little different but it's still the same  
I am here but where's the one I'm longing for?  
I'm having trouble feeling all alone  
Will my heart ever find a home  
I want to hope but sometimes I just don't know  
Yet I know I'm not the only one  
-~~~~~-

"I'm needed in a meeting with Staticshroud and our commanders. You two keep an optic out until I get back, understand?" Sniperkite sighed as he rose from his seat in the central control room where he, Pinprick and Quetzal spent most of their orns.

"Will do!" Quetzal chirped, swaying back and forth in her chair.

"You can count on us!" Pinprick saluted with a grin. Sniperkite smiled at them both and nodded his goodbye before leaving the room. Pinprick stood up and took the older mech's chair in front of the security monitors, knowing that someone had to watch them while their security head was out. It wasn't likely anyone would call into the communications station any time soon, and even if they did he was only a few steps away.

* * *

Meanwhile— in the mines…

"Gah!!!"

"You ok, Ufo?" Sapsucker questioned, looking over his shoulder at the large former Decepticon.

"Yeah…ehhhh….I'm fine," Ufo growled, rubbing one of his wings, "Weren't exactly built to go underground."

"Ufo!" Archveil, the recently assigned mine tech supervisor snapped, "That's the thirteenth such wing accident you've had in the last five orns! Get the blasted things taken off already! It's not like you can fly properly anyways!!"

Ufo frowned, and shook his head, "But I like me wings. Just because I can't fly in any direction except for straight up doesn't mean they're _completely_ useless!"

"Maybe not, but they come pretty close!" the femme snapped.

"It's his choice. It's his choice. It's his choice. It's h—"

_--Zap--_

Archveil slid her taser easily back into her arm as Deathspeak continued to watch her with a look of disappointment.

"For the time being, yes, but he may soon loose that privilege if this continues…" Archveil gave Ufo a warning glare, and then waved her hand dismissively, "Now go get yourself patched up."

"Was going to whether you let me or not," he grumbled, turning to leave.

* * *

Meanwhile—med-bay…

"Here, you two hold down the fort while I get Pinprick his medicine," Sparkler instructed as she grabbed one of Organum's vials that were sitting on the counter. The other two members of the med-bay staff, Icefog their acting nurse and another mech named Sliver, barely looked up in acknowledgment as she started out of the room.

"I'll be joining you," the older, icy-blue femme suddenly grumbled, "You'll be passing the rec. room. Someone needs to check on the younglings and make sure those good-for-nothing loafers are doing their job."

"So I have to be here by myself?" Sliver whined, tapping one of the countertops irritably until it became too painful. His pain sensors were much more sensitive than most, making the simplest tap on the shoulder feel like a bullet bouncing off his armor. He was very good at detail work and other things as his dexterity was phenomenal, but not so much with larger repairs or dealing with some more mobile bots like Flail.

"Quit complaining. At least you _do _get time to yourself!" Icefog snorted, crossing her arms.

"I'll be back soon anyways. And you can handle most of the bots here," Sparkler added.

"Note the key word there, _most_," Sliver mumbled dejectedly.

"What did I just say about complaining?" Icefog growled, her tone growing lower and lower with each word. Sliver shied away from her with an anxious look.

"We'll be right back, I promise," Sparkler winked at the other medic as she followed Icefog out the door.

* * *

Back in the control room:

"Hey um, Pinprick? I thought Braimond wasn't due back for awhile yet," Quetzal frowned, pointing at a large blip on her planet-wide screen, signaling that a ship was entering the atmosphere and headed their way.

"He's not. And normally he or Canto would have called if they were coming back early," Pinprick puzzled over the strange occurrence and returned to his usual seat at the communication system to look over some information, "And we aren't expecting any shipments for another four orns."

"Uh…shopping around maybe? We've had impromptu visits before," the spring-green femme commented, continuing to watch the blip as it moved closer.

"Still, we should have had a call by now," he muttered, tapping various buttons at his station to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

Quetzal frowned again, and turned to him, "Should we tell someone."

"Yeah, but who? Bosses are in a meeting and I don't think they'll want to be disturbed unless it's important."

"I don't know, Weave maybe? He's the one currently running the docking bay."

Pinprick snorted, "He won't be happy to hear this. Weave _hates _it when things don't go as precisely scheduled," he shook his head and tapped a few more buttons, "Can you call him? I'm going to see if I can't get some feedback from the security cameras so we can see exactly what we're dealing with here."

Quetzal nodded silently and opened a com-link with their OCD head of inventory, _"Excuse me, Weave?"_

She was answered with an exasperated sigh, _"Yes, Quetzal?"_

"_We have a ship coming in. We don't know who they are yet."_

"_WHAT!?!?! Without an appointment or a call ahead!!! I mean really, the nerve of some bots, why I…"_

Quetzal quietly disconnected the link, knowing he would probably be ranting until long after their "guests" left whether or not anyone was listening.

"It's a Decepticon ship," Pinprick murmured, finally managing to get some video feed, "Don't know what kind, though. Looks mostly like the carriers that has come here before."

Quetzal made a face and turned back to her screens and the little blips scatter throughout them that represented the energy signatures of her friends and family the Glitchlings. Pinprick once again switched back to the communication station, and tried to contact the ship as it docked into place in their shipping room. After several attempts and being ignored each time, he finally leaned against the back of his chair with a frustrated groan. By now, Quetzal could already see the blips on her screen representing Decepticons that were unloading from the ship.

"P-Pinprick?..." she gasped, pulling away from the screen.

"Yeah?" the young mech grumbled.

"C-could you come l-l-look at this-s?"

He did so, keeping an optic on the communications station for any last attempts at contacting them before turning his full attention to where Quetzal was pointing a shaky digit at the screen. He stared a moment with a small frown on his face before finally shaking his head.

"I don't see anything," he shrugged.

She looked up at him, her entire frame beginning to shake, "That's where W-Weave was standing just a moment ago….And now….h-he's gone!! "

Pinprick stared at her with wide optics before nearly collapsing on the back of Quetzal's chair and opening a com-link with Staticshroud, _"BOSS!!! BOSS!!! BOSS!!!!"_

"_Yes Pinprick?" _came the forest green mech's kind, but somewhat tired voice.

He didn't know what to say at first. He just stared straight ahead at the screen as the Decepticon blips started to grow in number and spread throughout the shipping room, _"I…..I-I-I….."_

"_Is…something wrong?"_

"_I think we're under attack!" _he finally blurted. The silence on the other end was deafening.

"_Pinprick," _he began slowly after a moment, _"Can you confirm that?"_

"_Weave's energy signal has been lost, and a Decepticon ship is unloading--large numbers of bots into our base!"_

The link closed before he could think of anything more he had to say. Barely a pulse later, the general frequency opened up and he heard Sniperkite's voice ringing through the head of every Glitchling on base.

"_Attention all personal, there is a possibility that we are under attack. Please proceed calmly to the nearest safety bunker immediately. We will inform you if there are any changes."_

Questions soon filled the link, but the two young bots in the control room soon found themselves being contacted on another frequency, to which they quickly switched over.

"_Quetzal, Pinprick; you two need to disconnect all the security equipment. If we really are under attack, we don't want them to have any way of finding us through our own technology_," Volary instructed, his voice becoming more strained as he spoke.

"_Yes sir," _they both answered in unison, and went about doing as they were told.

* * *

Meanwhile—rec. room:

"Is this for real?" Jadelock questioned worriedly, looking up at the other bots gathered in the room.

"Alright, everyone this way," Icefog sighed bitterly, opening a hidden door on one of the side walls as she held Spaz in her other hand.

"What's happenin'," the youngling questioned, gazing about him at the concerned looks of the others.

"It's nothing, just get inside," the icy-blue femme instructed as she gently pushed both him and Fidget inside the dark space.

"Are we all gonna _fit_ in there?" Flail pointed into the bunker with unease.

"Just barely," Spectral sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll all be cramped in there enough that you won't be _able _to hit anyone," Jadelock added as she also entered the bunker.

Her brother rolled his optics, "Wow thanks. You're so reassuring…"

The main door opened, and Sparkler darted inside, worry etched on her facial plating, as she spoke in a strained whisper, "We have to hurry. They're right down the hall!"

It took only moments for almost everyone to crowd into the bunker. Needless to say, personal space could not be much of an issue and on top of that the bunker had no lighting save for their optics. All that was left was for the last two Cybertronians to get in and close the door.

"I'm not going," Sunstreaker grumbled as Sparkler gave him an incredulous look.

"Yes you are," she huffed, grabbing his shoulder and attempting to pull him along with her. He swatted her hand away with a glare.

"I'm not going to hide from some slaggin' Decepticons," he hissed, revealing his gun, "They can't defeat me, so I have no intentions to pretend that they can."

Sparkler let her head drop backwards in an exasperated sigh, "Of all the times for you to decide you want to be helpful. Or are you just concerned about your reputation, because if that's the case _none of us care enough to see you get hurt!"_

As much as Sunstreaker would have _loved _to continue yet another pointless argument with her, he knew there wasn't time, and turned for the exit with nothing more than a shrug. Spectral watched the door with mild concern from where he stood in the entrance of the bunker, already able to hear the Decepticons marching down the halls and likely trashing everything in their path. Being a former member of their ranks himself, he knew that if there were really that many in their base, they meant nothing but harm.

He was about to inform both of the stubborn glitches left in the room of this fact in the hopes that maybe he could convince them to join them before it was too late but stopped short when he saw Sparkler leaning over Sunstreaker's prone form, now laying helplessly on the ground as the femme jammed her Resetter into his neck with a little more force than was probably necessary to get the device to work.

Spectral quickly stepped out into the room to help her drag the yellow mech into the bunker and close the door. The door was locked and they were all left in blackness.

"I'm feeling claustrophobic…" Flail whined in a loud whisper.

"SHHH!!!' Icefog had to restrain herself from slapping the young mech upside the head, knowing it would only result in more noise. Really though, everyone was uncomfortable. And it didn't help matters much that Sunstreaker was now laying on the floor with a Resetter still embedded in the back of his neck. Sparkler sent a quick com. to all of them it was not to be removed until the Decepticons had left or they were discovered for the sake of keeping him still.

Everyone froze when heard the rec. room doors blast open.

* * *

Meanwhile —front office bunker:

All had grown very quiet. Eerily so. Glasspike sat in the back of bunker, his head drooping weakly while he rested his arms on his knees. Next to him stood Illusion, her blue optics never leaving the bunkers entrance as she listened to the best of her capabilities. After a moment she decided that there was no life outside and she turned back to her distraught companion.

"Any word?" she questioned softly, leaning to the side so that she could see his face. It was a curse sometimes that she had no communication systems to speak of except for her vocalizer. She hadn't had a clue what was going on when Glasspike had suddenly grabbed her in one hand and they had both ducked into the bunker. Her paint was flaky and burnt from where he had touched her, but overall she was undamaged from the incident. He hadn't been able to tell her what was going on as they had suddenly heard voices outside, but she had a few guesses.

He just shook his head dejectedly. Illusion sighed quietly and rested a hand on his arm, ignoring the stinging sensation his high temperature caused. It wasn't enough to melt anything after all, and she really wasn't all that concerned with her pain job.

"I'm sure everyone's fine," if anything he only slumped more at her words.

"I-I know," he finally muttered, lifting his head just enough to look at the door, "It's just….I never thought this would happen. I thought we were all safe here…We're neutrals, we've helped both the Autobots and the Decepticons, so what could they possibly want?"

"We probably won't know until they leave," She let her hand fall back to her side, "All we can do now is pray for the best…"

* * *

Meanwhile—the mines:

"What do we do?! What do we do?! What do we do?! Wha—"

_--Zap--_

"There's not enough time to reach a bunker from out current location. We're just going to have to go deeper into the mines and hope they don't follow us," Archveil reasoned, her expression grim as she looked over her data pad inscribed with a map of the mines, and slowly pointed down one of the paths, "That way's our best bet. It has the most forks and goes the deepest."

She started to walk but the two mechs hesitated to follow.

"But what about Ufo? He couldn't have possibly made it to the med-bay by now!" Sapsucker insisted. Deathspeak nodded vigorously in agreement.

Archveil could only sigh, her usual professional tone now holding the faintest hint of sadness, "We can't afford to look for him, there's not time. I'm sorry you two, but there's nothing to be done….Deathspeak, don't start," she scolded when the brown and black mech tried to open his mouth to speak.

A sudden explosion caused the mine to tremble and some debris to fall from the ceiling. The three bots looked about in horror, fearing the intruders may mean to cause a cave in. For a moment they all stood still, watching the supports warily before Archveil dared to look down at her data pad map again. After a moment she tapped one particular spot on the map.

"We've lost our light sensors here. There's likely been a cave-in in that area," she stated plainly.

"Does that mean they won't be coming this way?" Sapsucker asked hopelessly. Archveil gave a weary shrug of her shoulders.

"It means that the tunnel is at least half filled with rocks, I don't have any more information than that. But I suppose it would probably be too much trouble for anyone to even scale that much of a pile just to get through to here, not unless they're after us specifically."

Sapsucker slouched looking down one of the still open paths, "So I guess we better be going then, eh?"

"That _would _be the safest course of action," the femme nodded, leading the way. Deathspeak and Sapsucker glanced behind them helplessly one last time before following after her with heavy sparks.

Two joors later—front office bunker:

"Did you hear that?" Glasspike asked hesitantly, glancing at Illusion out of the corner of his optic. She nodded mutely.

"Sounds like they took off…or at least their ship did," she finally muttered, lifting her head and looking to the ceiling as though she could somehow see the sky beyond their roof.

Again they were quiet, a strange mix of relief and fear creeping over them. Should they try to contact the others? Would there even be anyone to answer? What awaited them on the other side of that door? What was left of their home?

Finally Glasspike shut off his optics and a soft clicking could be heard as he opened as many com. links as he was capable of maintaining. Illusion gazed back at him, her small frame relaxed but her optics practically vibrating with apprehension.

"_H-h-hello?" _Glasspike ventured into the links. He couldn't even remember who he had tried to contact anymore. He just had to hear someone's voice. Anyone's. It could be Deathspeak's for all he cared, he just had to know there were others left.

"_Glass….pike?"_ came a weak reply at last. The plain silver mech slumped to the floor as all the tension in his body was released and his optics brightened with hope. In front of him Illusion managed a small smile at seeing his reaction.

"_Pinprick? That you?"_ he sent back…at least he hoped he sent it over the same frequency he had heard it from.

"_Y-yeah!" _the younger mech sounded just as pleased to hear from Glasspike as he was to hear from him.

"_Glasspike?" _came another familiar voice from another frequency, this one more shocked sounding than Pinprick's somewhat weakened tone.

Glasspike was about to respond when he realized he had no idea who this person was. His processors were so overloaded with elation at knowing others will still online he couldn't put together a coherent thought.

"_It's me…Who's this?" _he queried in mild embarrassment. A warm buzz of amusement came through the link and it immediately clicked into Glasspike's processors who he was addressing, _"Boss?! Oh thank Primus."_

"_Glasspike!" _yet another voice squealed. By now the poor mech was beginning to fear he would be overwhelmed if too many more bots responded, but he didn't have the spark to close any of them. He was just too happy. So happy to know that others had made it.

"_Quetzal! It's good to hear from you too!" _he quickly chirped back and then returned his attention to the link he had opened with Staticshroud, _"Hey boss! I think they left. Illusion and I heard a ship take off."_

"_Very well, thank you Glasspike. Just one moment."_

The link closed and a moment later the general frequency opened up and their leaders voice flowed into the helms of his Glitchlings, _"I think they're gone now everyone. But to be safe, I'd like you all to remain where you are until we come get you."_

"_Is anyone in need of medical attention?" _Sparkler suddenly piped up before the link could be closed_, "Because if they are I'd like to get to them as soon as possible."_

"_Yes, good point. Alright, does anyone need any immediate medical assistance?" _Staticshroud questioned. A small chorus of reassurances that all was well could be heard. After waiting a moment longer the general frequency closed and Glasspike leaned his head back against the wall with a small smile.

"So?" Illusion prompted, causing him to jump as he had almost forgotten her standing there.

"Boss is alive, so are a number of the others. Who knows! Maybe they all are!" he smiled, though there was still the slightest hint of worry flickering through his optics.

Illusion nodded, a similar expression on her own delicate features. After a moment they both turned their gaze towards the door and waited.

* * *

Meanwhile—command-head bunker:

The bunker door was shoved aside a little faster than it was probably built to go as Ivoryspur all but stormed out of the confined space. If Cybertronians could gasp for breath, that's likely what she would be doing right now. Being in close proximity to _anyone _made her uneasy. Being in a close proximity to _that _many bots though, in _that _little dark room for _that _long was a little bit more than she could take.

Volary was doing his best not to look _too _amused, but the very bitter glare she was giving him implied that maybe he wasn't doing as good a job as he thought he was. She leaned heavily against Staticshroud's desk, looking about ready to purge her tanks.

"Ivoryspur?" their leader began gently, knowing it was probably best to grant her space for now as opposed to comforting her with any form of touch, "Would you perhaps like to check up on your mother?"

The black femme shot upright, her optics flickering before she gave a brief nod and darted out the door without so much as another word. Sniperkite was the last to leave the bunker as he was very distracted by the data pad in his hands. But the looks of things he may have been having issues with his optics again.

"We should head for the rec. room first," he mused aloud, "It's closest and is probably where most of our group hid."

"Very well," Staticshroud agreed, though his tone sounded absent as looked about his office. Data pads were scatter everywhere, several of them appearing to be broken. Despite the mess, nothing really seemed to be missing from the room. Whatever they had been after, they certainly hadn't found it here.

* * *

Meanwhile—Organum's lab:

"Mother?" Ivoryspur called into the eccentric femme's lab, her vocalizer almost cracking as she was still recovering from sitting in a small box the last couple joors.

No response came and so she hesitantly stepped into the large room. It took her a moment to process the scene before her. The main table had been overturned and something that had been sitting atop it was now corroding the floor. Most of the cabinets sat open and bare along the walls, their contents either strewn about the countertops and floor or missing completely. A few of them had scorch marks on them and Ivory could only assume that was the result of Organum leaving "security devices" enclosed in the cabinets that held…stuff that was apparently very important. Ivoryspur herself had never opened one of said cabinets, so she didn't know what was inside.

"Mother!" she called again, a little louder this time. She knew Organum was still online, she could feel it within her spark. But where the slag could the femme be?!

"Mother!!" she yelled in her best commanding voice as she looked around the room in exasperation. Perhaps she wasn't in here after all. But if she wasn't here then…

"Yes dear?" came Organum's lilting voice from off to her right. Ivoryspur spun around to see her mother creator exiting a door…that had _not _been there a moment ago. In fact, she had _never _seen that door before. And yet, she wasn't the least bit surprised…

"Where _were _you?!" Ivoryspur was earnestly trying _not _to shout at her mother, but sometimes it was just so _hard_.

"Just in there," the elder femme gestured vaguely to the door as it molded back into the wall and disappeared.

"And what is…never mind. Come one, we need to catch up with the others," she muttered.

* * *

Meanwhile—rec. room:

The moment the bunker door slid open several of the bots inside began to stumble out, stretching their limbs and over all just enjoying being able to move around freely again. Spaz bounded around the somewhat tumultuous looking room, seemingly unaware that his vocalizer had been turned off and he jumped onto Staticshroud's shoulder with a silent squeal of delight. The forest green mech smiled softly at him, plucking the youngling up and then laying him to rest in the crook of his arm while he made note of each of the other Glitchlings present.

"Hmm…." He overheard Sparkler muse from where she stood in the bunker's entrance. He wandered over to see what she was looking at and was notably surprised to see Sunstreaker lying unconscious on the ground. He set Spaz back down and the youngling darted off to his next target.

"What happened?" he questioned worriedly. Sparkler turned to him with a somewhat awkward looking smile.

"I think I left this connected too long," she said, showing him her Resetter, "He'll be fine though, it's just going to take a little longer than usual for his systems to come back online…Nothing a good kick to the face plates couldn't fix though."

"Sparkler," Staticshroud warned as she took a step toward the yellow mech. Her shoulders sulked in defeat and she promptly returned to his side. Staticshroud watched her out of the corner of his optic for a moment and, noting the oddly thoughtful expression on her features, he decided to carry the conversation, "I take it he was being stubborn."

She cracked an embittered smirk and shook her head, "Sort of. I guess I didn't give him much of a chance to be stubborn this time around."

"I'm sure you meant well," he nearly chuckled.

"I guess.…I mostly just don't want anyone to go through what I've had to…Even if they're a complete stranger."

"I assume you mean his brother," Staticshroud stated, keeping his tone carefully neutral. Sparkler stared at him wordlessly. Even though Sunstreaker didn't often talk about his twin, most everyone knew that the mech existed. Sparkler on the other hand had only ever mentioned her younger sister to a very select few.

After a moment she looked down at her feet, "It's not easy…having a sibling die on you…especially if you know you weren't there to help them…"

"And so you do what you can to keep Sunstreaker online, even though you know that this twin of his may in fact be just like him?" the forest green mech raised an optical ridge as he attempted to pull her back out of her dark train of thoughts.

"If that's the case then Primus help me the next time something like this happens," she snorted, "I suppose I'd better get out of here before he finishes waking up. He's not much of a morning mech, and I don't really feel like having a gun shoved down my throat today."

Staticshroud stifled a small chuckled as she slid back out the door, "If you're able, could you fetch Glasspike and whoever might be with him from the front desk bunker?"

"Not a problem," she waved her hand dismissively and was soon out the door.

"Is everyone else alright?" Staticshroud questioned, turning back to the main group.

"For the most part," Spectral answered looking about.

"Jadelock had some trouble, but we're all good now!" Flail added, patting his sister on the back. The femme glowered at him and then looked on with sadistic glee as one of his legs flung backwards, sending him sprawling out on the ground.

The Glitchling leader sighed with relief. So far it seemed that all could go back to normal…at least he hoped it could. They wouldn't know for sure until they had a chance to survey how much damage the intruders, Decepticons Sniperkite had informed him, had done to their base and whether or not any were left.

But as much as he dared himself to hope for the best, a sickening feeling was swirling in his tanks. He knew something wasn't right, but he just couldn't place where the feeling was coming from.

* * *

Meanwhile—med-bay:

"I wonder if they took anything from here…" Organum mused aloud as she suddenly stopped walked and peered into the now door-less med-bay.

Ivoryspur shook her helm, "We can check later. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be caught alone out here if there are any Decepticons left."

"Just wait a moment dear," Organum instructed gently, stepping inside despite her daughter's protest, "Besides I doubt there's anyone in….Oh Primus…"

Ivory tilted her head to the side in curiosity, and quietly came up behind her mother to see what the matter was. And while she had never really been the most compassionate of femmes, the sight before her caused her spark to pulse painfully in her chassis.

Among the few remaining scattered materials littering the floor lay Sliver's still form. Or at least what little was left of it. Organum reverently knelt by his side, turning the poor offline mech over so she could completely survey the damage. There was barely anything left but his frame, some broken wiring and pipes, and his armor plating. The Decepticons had taken most of his equipment and anything else usable they had been able to find on him. Organum could only hope that his death had come quickly.

After a moment, Ivoryspur came up next to her and gently cradled the limp form in her arms. They weren't sure what they were going to do with his body yet, but they knew they couldn't just leave it here. Without a word both femmes exited the room and once again started making their way back towards the main group.

* * *

Meanwhile—front desk bunker:

Glasspike and Illusion both looked up at the light tapping on the bunker door followed by the entrance being opened to reveal the Glitchling's dusty-orange medic. Sparkler smiled at them in relief and they quickly went out to join her.

"I take it all is well here?" she asked looking back and forth between the two.

"We're fine, thank you," Glasspike nodded, his face almost split into by his wide smile as he had now had visual proof that the others were ok.

"What exactly happened, do you know?" Illusion asked.

"All we know is that the Decepticons apparently ransacked the place," the medic sighed, "We haven't had a chance to completely look over the damage yet."

"What about Weave?" Glasspike suddenly gasped, turning to the door that led to the shipping room, "He was in there!"

Sparkler's gaze saddened considerably, "According to Pinprick and Quetzal he was offlined at the start of the attack.

Before she could even finish speaking Glasspike had already run to the door and was surveying the large shipping and docking bay. Most of the materials they kept stocked there were gone, making the already large room look more cavernous than usual. Illusion came up behind him, her hand held over her spark as she too looked about them.

"We might as well see if we can find anything. At least some remnant of him," the small black, blue and pink femme whispered. Glasspike nodded shakily and walked numbly into the room as Illusion turned back to Sparkler, "You go on without us. They might need you if they find anyone injured.

"Good luck," Sparkler sighed, her voice sounding a bit weaker than usual as she turned to leave. Illusion merely nodded before joining Glasspike in his search.

* * *

Meanwhile—rec. room:

"Where is that fraggin' medic?!" Sunstreaker groaned as he pushed himself up. Volary who had been left to watch the yellow mech until he awoke glanced down at him.

"Nice to see you up," he tried his best to smile, "Sorry, I don't know where Sparkler is right now."

Sunstreaker staggered to his feet and Volary saw the look of pure homicidal intent engraved in his blue optics. It was a little bit unnerving so he took a step back just to be safe. He said nothing, but Volary could hear him activating a com. link and couldn't help but utter a quiet sigh.

"_Sparkler…" _Sunstreaker growled over the link. There was a pause on the other end.

"_Sunstreaker…" _she replied back in an equally friendly tone.

"_Are you busy?"_

"_Just a little."_

"_Ok, then I'll wait."_

"_That's very kind of you."_

"_You're welcome."_

The com. link ended and Sunstreaker turned back to Volary, "What are we needed for?"

"Staticshroud wants us to find Pinprick and Quetzal, and then join him in the southern tunnel of the mine. There's apparently been a cave-in," the larger mech informed him.

"Joy..."

It took them a little longer than it usually would have to reach the control room, mostly due to the fact that Sunstreaker wasn't fully awake yet, but they did reach their destination eventually. As with just about every other room in the base, most of their more advanced equipment was gone, and with the few remaining screens turned off, there wasn't much light either.

"Pinprick! Quetzal!" Volary called as he stepped around a broken chair. The control room was one of the few that didn't have a bunker anywhere nearby, but that didn't mean there weren't hiding places. The trouble was trying to figure out which one the two younger Cybertronians had used.

"In here!" came the muffled response from an overturned crate in the corner.

Sunstreaker and Volary shared a glance before they both went to work on lifting the heavy-duty container just enough for Pinprick and Quetzal to crawl out. Quetzal had to stop herself from hugging the two mechs and instead settled for a grateful bow as Pinprick smiled.

"You know, I wouldn't exactly call that a hiding place," Sunstreaker commented dryly, kicking the crate.

Quetzal shuffled her feet nervously, "I tripped…and we got stuck under there…"

"Figures," the yellow mech sighed, rolling his optics.

* * *

Meanwhile—the mines:

"How are we progressing?" Organum asked gently as she and Ivoryspur finally caught up with the others.

"It shouldn't take too much longer," Staticshroud sighed, "We mostly just need to make a big enough opening up at the top for Archveil, Sapsucker and Deathspeak to crawl through."

"Where's Ufo?"

The forest green mech shook his helm sadly, "We don't know…"

Organum glanced back over her shoulder as Ivory who was carefully setting Sliver's remains on the ground so she could help, "And no one has been able to contact him?"

"I'm afraid not…" Staticshroud muttered, following her gaze.

"Just a little more…" Sniperkite grunted as he and Jadelock tugged on a particularly stubborn rock. It finally came loose, sending the two tumbling backwards off the mound.

"I think this is probably big enough," Archveil called from above, as she climbed through the hole, closely followed by Deathspeak.

Sapsucker had a bit more trouble than the two smaller Cybertronians, but did eventually manage to squeeze through, and roll down the other side. He was about to stand when he froze and looked down at his hand in surprise.

"Are you injured?" Staticshroud asked, coming up next to him. Sapsucker shook his head slowly.

"No just…" he moved his hand over the spot it had landed a few times, "My hand is being magnetized to something."

Staticshroud stared at the rocks incredudously as he rubbed his chin, and then reached down, brushing the debris away. Sapsucker helped him, though he made sure not to accidently touch their leader. Eventually they uncovered a slab of dark blue metal.

"Ufo?" Sapsucker shuttered his optics and was suddenly tearing at the rocks above the revealed piece of metal.

"Is he online?" Archveil asked worriedly as Deathspeak and Ivoryspur moved to help him.

Staticshroud stared a moment and slowly shook his head. The other bots in the tunnel all sagged as eventually the former Decepticon's entire body was uncovered; revealing that what Staticshroud had said was true.

"How did this happen?" Archveil shook her head, looking down at Ufo's now lifeless shell. Sparkler, who had just arrived moments before, came up next to his remains and her medical programming kicked in. After running a few scans she turned back to them.

"Cause of deactivation is self-destruct," the dusty-orange medic stated coolly before her optics dimmed back to normal levels and she looked down sadly.

"Self-destruct? But why?" Jadelock gasped.

For the first time since any of them had met her, Archveil looked fragile and small as she stared at the offline mech, "H-h-he was blocking the tunnel….in order to save....us…"

"Brave mech…" Sniperkite barely whispered.

"_Booooooossssssss!!!" _Pinprick screamed over a com. link. Staticshroud winced, but knew that if the excitable mech was that worked up, something must be _terribly _wrong.

"_Yes Pinprick?"_

"_Well, we stopped by the refinery to see if there was anything left there, and we looked at some of the equipment that was too big for them to take and it's getting too hot!! Volary says it's gonna blow!!"_

Staticshroud's optics grew in intensity, _"Get outside, Pinprick! You and everyone with you!"_

"_Yes sir!"_

The link hadn't even closed before Staticshroud turned back to the others, "We have to get out of here! The refinery systems are overheating!"

"Everyone out! And be quick about it!" Ivoryspur barked before anyone could begin to panic.

"What about them?" Flail asked helplessly as he looked at the two deactivated mechs on the tunnel floor.

"There's not time. We will have to leave them to be buried here in the mountains," Staticshroud murmured, taking up the rear of the group, "Now go!"

Everyone managed to gather outside without incident, and they could only hope they were far enough away to be safe. Fortunately the threatening organic life on this planet had left the area vorns ago, so they were relatively secure unless the Decepticons returned. Not long after they were all out, an explosion rocked the landscape as their refinery literally disintegrated from the intense heat. Once the dust cleared and their optics were no longer flickering from the flash, they saw what little was left of the place they once called home.

Billowing smoke rose from its right side, the metal and stone that had once covered that area now gone and leaving a gaping hole. They didn't have to venture inside to know that there wasn't going to be much left.

All they needed to know was that they were without a home and had no place else to go.

* * *

_-~~~~~-  
The pressure makes us stronger  
The struggle makes us hunger  
The hard lessons make the difference  
And the difference makes it worth it  
-~~~~~-_

Dusk was upon them by the time Braimond and Canto returned to the planet. They landed their carrying vessel as best as they could on the surrounding rocky landscape, allowing the Glitchlings to board and rest safely for the night. A few of them went out and managed to scrounge up what little was left of their supplies and put them in the cargo hold before they left the planet for good.

For the most part, everyone was solemnly quiet as they all sat or stood along the walls of the fairly roomy control room. Several times someone would try to speak, only to fall quiet even before they began as they couldn't think of anything they could possibly say. Even Organum was impossibly quiet, instead settling for watching the control panels over Braimond and Canto's shoulders. It was enough that it had put a damper of Spaz's seemingly infinite energy and optimism.

Speaking of the youngling, he had wandered into the center of the room, his optics wide as ever with innocence and hurt as he looked at those around him and pulled his little arms to his chassis as he made a small plea, "Hug?"

Every pair of optics in the room turned to the youngling as he shuffled his feet shyly. At first no one moved, they could only stare at the only one of them that had dared to speak. Spaz looked at the floor, looking almost regretful that he had until someone stepped up behind him.

It wasn't who you would expect. Archveil had never really shown any fondness for the younglings in their group before, or anyone else for that matter. But she was the first to move. She bent down and lifted him up into her arms, gently nestling him against her chassis as he leaned against her. She stroked the top of his head until he finally began to smile, his courage renewed.

"Hug?" he said again, looking expectantly at those around him. Staticshroud managed a small smile, and came up next to Archveil, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Organum followed soon afterwards, coming to the femme's other side, and doing the same.

One by one the other Glitchlings joined the growing circle as well. Sapsucker purposely positioned himself on one side of Flail, his magnetic frame keeping the younger mech from accidently hurting him or himself. Ivoryspur, despite her usual distaste for being in such close proximity with anyone, was able to reach to two bots on either side of her with her long arms, and had even offered to let Illusion perch on her right hand so that the small femme could join them as well. Soon there were only a few left that hadn't joined.

Pinprick glanced back over his shoulder from where he stood in the circle next to Sparkler and Volary to see that Sunstreaker was still lingering back, watching event unfolding before him with suspicion. Pinprick pursed his lips and nudged Sparkler slightly, silently gesturing to the yellow mech behind them. With the faintest of grins, the medic nodded and broke arms with her younger companion.

"Temporary truce?" Sparkler offered, watching Sunstreaker out of the corner of her optic. Sunstreaker glowered at her.

"Don't make us come over there an get you!" Pinprick added, his somewhat louder tone drawing the attention of Spaz.

"Sunny! Group hug! Group hug!!" the youngling squealed.

"I hate younglings," he muttered as he begrudgingly joined between Pinprick and Sparkler. He didn't exactly hug them as much as he did lean against them, but for once, Sparkler made no comment and only smiled in amusement.

"You too Glasspike," Jadelock smiled at the plain silver mech. He fidgeted nervously.

"I-I don't want to hurt anyone…"

"You won't," the blue-green and white femme assured.

"And who cares about some flecked off paint?" Flail added. Hesitantly Glasspike finally agreed and joined between the two siblings, almost looking like he would cry.

"Well at least we didn't loose everything…" Sniperkite murmured wistfully.

"Indeed…" Organum sighed, dropping her head.

Staticshroud nodded slowly and then looked up into the optics of each and every Glitchling. As inadequate for the position as he was, he had to lead them. He had to let them all know that everything would be alright, even though he wasn't so sure himself.

"We lost something precious today…" he finally began, his voice trembling slightly, "We lost our home and we lost some dear members of our family…."

Beside him Spaz reached up and patted his arm, and to his other side Quetzal tightened her hug. He felt…a certain warmth coming from the younger ones…and not just from the two next to him, but from everyone, and it strengthened his resolve.

"But that doesn't mean we've lost all hope," he went on, "We will find another home and we will start again. Far away from the Autobots and Decepticons and this blasted war. We will find a home where we can thrive as one and provide a sanctuary for those like us."

A quiet buzzing in his processors alerted him that he was on the verge of another episode, but he continued to speak just the same, "Just because we have glitches does not mean we are incapable of fending for ourselves. Up until now we have traded with the two factions for the supplies we couldn't conjure up ourselves, but I say no more. We know how to mine our own materials and energon can be fabricated from other sources. We have a ship to start us off and we are not completely without supplies. All we need now is a little time and faith in our own abilities.

"I swear I will do what I can to keep you all safe, and prevent such tragedy from befalling us in the future. I know I'm not a perfect leader, and if any of you wish to leave us and join another faction, I will completely understand. It is your choice to make. All I ask is that if you stay, I want you to lend me your trust and I will do everything in my power to not let you down…"

Organum cracked a small, knowing smile, "No one is going to leave you, Staticshroud."

"She's right! We're all staying right here!" Quetzal agreed.

"We trust you, and your judgment," Volary nodded.

"And we'll do whatever it takes to get the Glitchlings back up on their feet," Sparkler's voice came next.

"You very much know it to be true! After all, that's what families do!" Canto beamed.

"Well then, I suppose we should get started," Staticshroud shook his helm, his vocalizer nearly cracking with emotion as he spoke, "Thank you…everyone."

-~~~~~-  
So we sing a lullaby  
To the lonely hearts tonight  
Let it set your heart on fire  
Let it set you free  
When you're fighting to believe in a love that you can't see  
Just know there is a purpose  
For those who wait

* * *

Frog: I LOVE the ending part! It's one of my most favorite scenes I've ever written!!! XD Well so now there's only Act 2 left and I can finally wrap this up! And don't worry, the next chapter will be much _much _shorter than this was *laughs nervously*. So I hope you all enjoyed it, despite it's excessive length. I tried to get everyone in there at least once, but I didn't have a chance for Fidget to say anything XP Oh well, I'll be sure to add him in next chapter.

Hopefully everyone was more or less in character and that all the changing of scenes wasn't too confusing...

Thank you so very much for reading and please review! Any kind of constructive or otherwise supportive feedback is good, so please review, please? XD

Have a fantastic weekend! Bye!!


	13. Prelude Act 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing from transformers and neither do I own the song "Run" by Addison Road.

Frog: Finally! We have reached the last chapter!! I'm so excited I might just hug my sister! *looks as said sister*....Actually never mind XD

Anyways, it's good to finally be done....although I still have the next story to write, don't I....drat XD Oh well, it's been a long time since I finished **_anything _**on this site, so it feels good to label this "Complete".

Hope you all enjoy this chapter. I'm _fairly _sure ya'll will be able to guess what's going on. And this chapter is like...**_insanely _**short compared to the last one XD

* * *

Stoplights, breakdown, we cry, last try  
Worlds collide, time to decide  
Where you wanna go in this great big world  
Where you wanna go in this great big world

Stuck here too long in this sad song  
Lost on the street, everyone has vanished  
And you're all alone, but you don't know where to go  
Yeah you're all alone and you wanna go home  
-~~~~~-

Several orns had passed since the Glitchlings had been forced from their home. At least fourteen, though as far as the occupant's of Braimond's ship here concerned, it felt like twice as long. Time passed by so slowly and with little to no progress save for putting distance between themselves and the warring factions of Cybertron.

They had looked over a few possible planets to begin again, but so far they had had very little luck finding something suitable. There was always a problem with the atmosphere or some kind of seismic activity or something else that they probably could have lived with, but chose not to because it just didn't feel right for some reason.

Despite this, however, the journey on board had been fairly peaceful. Even their most volatile members had been more or less subdued in nature and the only time anyone had any trouble was when Spaz was being, well…himself. It wasn't as if they were all trapped in the same room either, there was also the engine room and the large cargo hold where several Cybertronians could hide away and not worry about anyone else coming to disturb them.

Currently, most everyone was in recharge save for those piloting the ship. Staticshroud however soon found himself being gently nudged awake. Onlining his optics wearily, he turned to see Volary giving him a sheepish smile. He motioned with his optics to the front of the ship, and the forest-green mech nodded in understanding but not before noticing Ivoryspur recharging soundly against Volary's other arm. He shot the former Decepticon a look of amusement to which Volary quickly averted his optics.

"Found anything of interest?" Staticshroud asked Braimond and Canto quietly as to not awaken the other recharging forms scattered about the control room.

Braimond nodded, gesturing to a growing dot in the vast expanse of space as they approached it, "According to our long-range scans, the planet's surface contains many different climates, most of which we would be able to thrive in. It also has more usable resources than any other celestial body in this system. It currently does support life forms of an organic nature, but nothing really big enough to pose a threat."

"Are they sentient?"

"Until we can observe them directly, we can't be sure. If they are, their technology is very primitive," Braimond answered.

"Congregations they have set, so conscious thought there may be yet," Canto mused, pointing at one of their scanner screens that showed electrical currents, and presently the only kind of currents shown were of the type that organic creatures produce naturally, which while very small, were still visible if one looked closely. However there were some places where several of this little blips were clustered together, making brighter marks on the map that were too large to merely be a flock or a herd of some sort, so it was safe to assume that they were cities and towns.

Staticshroud nodded solemnly, "Perhaps we should keep looking then. It probably would be best not to disturb them."

"As much as I want to agree with you, we don't have many other options," Braimond sighed heavily, similarly to how their leader often had in the past.

"We watch as our fuel levels drop. 'Tis soon we must find a place to stop. If we use the landscape as a prop, perhaps we hide until fuel reaches top?" Canto suggested.

"I suppose you're right," Staticshroud rubbed his helm tiredly, "Braimond, try to find an uninhabited area to land in. We'll bury the ship to hide it from view and then we can work out a plan for gathering more supplies."

"Bury it?" Ivoryspur asked incredulously, nearly making Staticshroud jump with her sudden intrusion, "Wouldn't it just be easier to use the ship's equipment?"

"You'd be surprised," Braimond replied back curtly, "Our power sources are already depleted enough as it is, and I'd rather not take the chance of our equipment dying on us, at least not until we have a means of replenishing it. Burying the ship is a very simple plan that we can have carried out in a matter of a few joors with everyone's co-operation. It also leaves open the option of becoming a permanent residence if we eventually decide we'd rather stay here than continuing this drawn out search of ours."

Ivoryspur still didn't look too pleased about the idea, but she nodded anyways. Staticshroud wasn't sure when in the conversation she had woken up, but apparently she had risen to her feet without his notice. Volary was still sitting on the floor, looking…somewhat awake and a quick glance around the room showed that the rest of the Glitchlings at least appeared to still be recharging.

"I think it's a good idea," Volary sighed, sliding up the wall's surface until he was standing next to the black femme.

Ivoryspur sighed heavily, "Of course you would…"

"No really!" he insisted with a smile, "I have a really good feeling about this place."

"As do I, my friend so dear. My spark is shining bright and clear!" Canto beamed.

Staticshroud said nothing, but he found that he agreed with them. There was…something that he felt, deep in his spark. It almost seemed…familiar in a way. Thinking more on the matter he realized that something about this planet reminded him of home. He couldn't quite place why, it just did! And the closer they got, the stronger this feeling became.

Again, he had no idea why, it just was that way. Fate, destiny, intuition; he had no idea what to label it, but somehow he knew that it was ok to be there. The Glitchlings would be safe, at least for a time and right now, that was all that mattered.

And so they did.

The Glitchling's stayed on the planet, which they learned to be called "Earth", hiding from their human neighbors. As time went on, they once again built up a mining company, selling what they didn't need to the humans and using their funds to ensure their security from being discovered. For a long time, all was going well…

Until their brethren stumbled upon the same planet, and well, you know the rest.

Still, the Glitchling's managed to stay under the radar of both Autobot and Decepticon. Hiding in their base and only coming out when it was absolutely necessary, biding their time until the other Cybertronians left and they could once again breathe easily.

Unfortunately, they never did.

Years passed, and the war had been misplaced to the planet Earth. It became harder and harder for the Glitchlings to remain unnoticed. They knew that eventually they would be discovered, it was just a matter of when and by whom…

-~~~~~-  
Run just as fast as you can  
Run 'til you reach the end  
Where the fallen finally land  
Your world starts over again

Run now, don't you look back  
Run towards the light straight ahead  
Where the lost souls make a beautiful sound  
And new life is finally found  
Run…

* * *

Frog: So I'm thinking the Glitchling's arrived on Earth in about the early to mid-1700s. The reason they were all feeling comfortable about the plan is that I've decided the Allspark (which they did not detect in their scans...for some reason XP) gives off an energy that must remind them of Cybertron, and thus makes them feel at home. Hopefully that makes sense. The Glitchling's now have a base on Earth, most of which is still underground, but there are above ground portions for the purpose of making it _look _like a mining company. I actually have a floor-plan laid out for it if anyone wants to see it. There's a link on our profile.

As always, please review and hurrah, it's finally finished XD Sort of... Actually I may or may not add chapters to it in the future. It all depends on whether or not I find there are any side-stories to tell in order for the other fic to make sense. So if there's anything you feel has been left unexplained so far, just tell me so I can work on it. I don't want my readers to be confused by plot holes I missed after all ;)

Thank you all so much for reading, I know OCs aren't necessarily what you come to ff. net for, and I'm glad you've taken the time to read through this.

Until next time, bye!!


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